Wasteland
by Sage Londyn
Summary: Bird chose to change her ways, swearing that there were lines she wouldn't let herself cross again. She planned to keep her violent side at bay, be someone her parents would have been proud of –and she was never, ever going to kiss Jim Gordon again. But the problem with drawing lines in the sand is that with a breath of air they vanish. • Season 2 •
1. Painted Red

**I**

 _"Hours pass as I dream to remember the pressure of finally moving to a state of mind where nothing matters. All around me, we are broken. Craving for hope and craving for answers, wondering if this is the life for us. Like a caged bird forced to consume a life full of nightmares and tragedies on our own. We are broken, without a choice. Left hiding in all the small things that keep us from dying in the darkness of our own misery." - Aly Johnson_

* * *

 **•••**

"Honey, you look so beautiful." Martha said brushing a tear from her cheek as she stood behind her daughter in the mirror before adjusting Bird's long brunette hair that had been perfectly curled for the occasion.

"Thanks mom." Bird said, smiling at their reflections as she nervously fidgeted with the shaped organza silk bodice of her wedding dress that flared out into a soft white layered skirt that just brushed the floor once she had her heels on.

Stepping in front of her, Martha smiled proudly as she gently brushed the right side of Bird's hair back and secured it with an elegant hair clip of delicate porcelain flowers adorned with pearls and sparkling diamonds.

"I'm so proud of you." She cooed, laying her hands on Bird's bare arms and taking a moment to take in the sight of how grown up she looked.

"Nervous?" She questioned.

Nodding, Bird held up the skirt of her dress and walked over to the large window of the room she'd been getting ready in.  
The window provided the perfect view of the picturesque scene set up in the side courtyard of Wayne Manor –the seats were already filling up and the minister was near the flower-adorned wedding arch she'd soon be standing in front of.

"A little." Bird answered softly, trailing her fingers across the glass as she stared down to the yard.

"I was too." Martha admitted watching her daughter, "Terrified is a better term for how I felt. I was so scared I was going to trip, or say the wrong thing…maybe even faint when I finally made it to the altar."

With a small laugh, Bird turned to face her as she asked, "How long until that feeling goes away?"

"I was so nervous I was literally shaking by the time I reached the aisle –all eyes were on me and I could have sworn all the bones in my legs had turned to mush until I looked up and saw your father." She smiled, her eyes bright with memories as she spoke, "Our eyes met and suddenly all of my nerves and the fears were silenced. He was my calm that day… he always has been. So grounded and strong."

"Yeah." Bird nodded, her eyes glistening as she admitted, "It's like that with Harvey too, he calms me down in a way that no one else ever could."

Smiling, she reached up and rested a hand on the side of her daughter's face. "I love you and I love how happy being with him makes you."

"I love you too, mom." Bird managed to say, blinking rapidly in an attempt to keep her tears at bay and not ruin her make-up.

Hearing a knock on the door, they both looked over to see Thomas Wayne in the doorway.  
Dressed in his best tux with a million dollar smile on his lips as he said, "Hope I'm not interrupting… but it's almost showtime."

"No, not at all." Martha smiled at her husband, before she gave another smile to Bird and turned to leave as she said, "It's probably for the best… much longer and we're both going to have mascara running down our cheeks."

With a laugh, he leaned down and kissed his wife as she walked past him out of the door.

"What?" Bird asked, shifting her stance as her dad stared at her.

"You just look so grown up." He commented, clearing his throat. "So beautiful… but so adult."

"I am grown up." Bird reminded him, before she turned back to the mirror to make sure everything was in place and perfect.

"You're sure you're ready to do this?" He asked, stepping farther into the room and watching her as she turned back to face him.

Letting out a breath she nodded and watched as he crossed the room to pick up her wedding bouquet off the vanity and handed it to her. Her eyes fell to the arrangement composed of a mix with purple roses, black calla lilies, blue hydrangeas and purple orchids.

It was perfect, everything about that day felt so utterly perfect that she was having a hard time believing it was real.

Looking back and seeing the expression on her father's face, Bird countered, "Are you ready to do this?"

"Not really." He admitted, "I spent so long trying to hold onto you that the idea of giving you away…" His voice trailed off as he shook his head and had to clear this throat when his voice started to crack.

"It's not like I'm leaving the country." Bird pointed out, her own voice growing unsteady as she continued, "Our house is barely thirty minutes away."

"I know." He said, his voice barely over a whisper, before pulling in a deep breath and nodding to the wedding planner who'd come to check on them, letting her know they'd be outside in mere minutes.

"Well…" He began as he turned and face the door, holding his arm out to the side for her to take he said, "We'd better get out there."

Pulling in a deep breath of her own, all she could manage as a response was a nod of the head as she stepped up and took his arm as they left the room.

The walk downstairs was a quiet one, most of which she spent lost in her own head, barely able to believe what was happening.

After a walk down the aisle and an exchanging of vows and rings, everything would change. By the end of the day, she wouldn't even have the same last name; it was surreal.

Just as they walked past her father's office, Bird looked to the side and let out a loud gasp, coming to a dead stop and nearly dropping her bouquet as she was met with the horrific sight of Alfred laying on the floor in a massive puddle of blood. "Alfred!" She gasped.

"What?" Thomas asked, following her line of sight before he said, "He's probably already in his seat outside."

"He's…" Bird's voice trailed off when she looked back into the office and didn't see him anymore.  
Clearing her throat she let out a nervous laugh and sputtered out an apology as they continued their walk to the side exit where the doors were propped open.

The soft piano music reached her ears as they stepped outside and her breath caught in her throat as everyone turned around and all eyes were on her.

Her grip tightened on her father's arm and she was sure that if it wasn't for his strength and support she'd have collapsed onto the ground.

They'd done a total of five rehearsals and every single one had gone off without a hitch –only this was different. This was real.

Bird looked up to see Harvey Dent waiting for her at the altar, a smile on his face and an adoring look in his eyes as he watched her and just like her mom had described to her, she could feel her fears starting to settle.

Her glossed red lips curved up as she smiled back, with a star-struck look on her face.

Her eyes drifted around at all the faces staring back at her as they began their walk down the center aisle and her pace slowed as she realized she didn't know any of the people there.

Her heart started to beat erratically in her chest and the acid in her stomach felt like it was bubbling up into her throat.

"Dad?" She whispered, her eyes darting back and forth before they stopped on where the piano was set up and she saw it was Oswald playing, "Dad, something is wrong…" she repeated.

"Keep walking." Her feet planted firmly on the ground when she recognized the voice, only it wasn't the voice of Thomas Wayne –it was Carmine Falcone.

With widened eyes, she tried to tear her arm away from his, but he kept a stone tight grip on her as he repeated, "Keep walking…this is what you wanted, isn't it?"

"I…" Her voice trailed off and she swallowed hard, her head frantically shaking back and forth. "This is wrong… something isn't right." She stammered, as she looked down to see her bouquet of intense color flowers were now completely wilted and dead.

The blackened and decayed petals were crawling with bugs and just as a spider made its way onto her hand, she dropped the flowers to the ground and started to shake the bugs from her hand.

Before she had time to protest or do anything else, she had to scramble to stay standing as Falcone started to drag her the rest of the way down the aisle.

"Stop!" She pleaded, jerking her arm away from his. "Are you okay?" Harvey asked, concern in his whisper as he leaned forward and watched her closely.

"My parents…" She managed to choke out, trying to fight for her breath.

"Are right there." Harvey said, nodding to the front row. Bird followed his sight and her heart stopped in her chest as she saw them both sitting in the front row in their formal wear –completely saturated with blood.

"Pull it together, Bird. People are starting to stare."

Whipping her head around she stared wide-eyed at Liza standing at the front of her line of bridesmaids as her maid of honor.  
Her neck was dark and deeply bruised with blue and black handprints on her skin. Giving her a smile, Liza continued to speak, "Smile… this is your day. This is what you were fighting so hard for, right?"

Bird's mouth hung open as she stared back out to the wedding guests and started to realize that she did know some of them –they were the faces of the people she'd killed.

She didn't know most of their names, but their ghostly faces haunted her in the dark of night.

"Look at me." Harvey instructed, taking her hand in his and gently rubbing his thumb over her skin.  
His voice was calm and soothing. "This is the hard part, okay? After this, it's just us."

As she turned back to face him, tears pooled in her eyes when she saw his face was beaten up and his clothes bloody.  
It was painful to see him like that again, brought back memories of how Falcone had hurt him to keep her in line.

"Harvey…" She sobbed, mascara laced tears making their way down her cheeks and leaving stained trails on her flesh.

Her stomach was twisted up in knots and her head was pounding, it felt like someone was slowly trying to carve her heart out of her chest with a dull butter knife.

"I thought this was what you wanted." Falcone said, and Bird looked to see he was now standing where the minister had been just moments before. "I don't!" Bird shrieked, her eyes terror-ridden and voice broken between her painful, desperate gasps for air, "I… I d-didn't ask for any of this!"

Feeling an ice cold hand grip onto her bare ankle, Bird looked down to see a dark haired woman was on the ground next to her.

Frantic, Bird kicked her away and took several stumbling steps backward. A scream leaving her lips as the woman followed her in a scrambled crawl that didn't resemble human movement at all.

Her joints seemed to be bending the opposite directions, every single move was choppy and her skin was a bluish tone. A feeling of dread and horror swelled up inside of her chest, fear closing off her throat from any air supply and Bird watched helplessly as the woman raised her head until her face was visible from behind her dark, stringy hair.

The stranger's features nearly matched Birds and she wasn't sure how she knew it, but she could feel it in her soul that the person looking at her was her birth mother.

Some inhuman, mangled version of her –but it was Lilith Wayne. Lilith's head snapped towards one side and Bird stumbled backwards as she watched her mother's eyes turn completely black until there were finally two voids where her eyes should have been.

"I've got you baby girl." A voice called from behind her, and Bird let out a sigh of relief as she felt a pair of hands on her arms and she knew the voice belonged to Fish.

"Fish!" She cried, turning around and clutching onto her in desperation, needing to feel some kind of comfort from the hell she'd found herself surrounded by on what was supposed to be one of the happiest days of her life.

"You always were my favorite." Fish said with a sad smile, and Bird's eyes darted back and forth as she saw her former boss was soaking wet from head to toe.

"The river…" She realized, memories starting to come back to her, "Oswald… he… he pushed you into the river-"

"A-138." "What?" Bird cried out, shaking her head as she screamed, "What does that mean?"

Fish opened her mouth and repeated, "A-138."  
Only this time it wasn't Fish's voice.

Bird backed away from her with thoughts spinning around in her head like a category five hurricane with no way to find shelter.

"A-138! Last chance!" With a gasp, Bird jolted awake sitting straight up in her bed, her tangled brunette locks clung to her sweat peppered face and she looked over to see an orderly standing at the doorway of her room.

"A-138, it's time-"

"I have a name." Bird complained, kicking the thin and tattered blankets off her of as she spoke.

"Whatever." The orderly sighed, her eyes drifting up to the ceiling in annoyance before she pointed out, "You don't seem very eager to be getting out of Arkham."

"I'll believe I'm actually getting out of here when I get to step foot outside of those gates." Bird muttered under her breath.

Picking up the box at the foot of her bed, she looked down at the small number of personal belongings she'd gathered up the night before and tried not to get her hopes up.

At her last meeting with her lawyer, she'd been told new evidence had been uncovered in her case and it would only be a matter of days before she'd be released from Arkham.

She tried not to get her hopes up –after all, whoever had framed her had done a terrifyingly good job and she was starting to believe the truth would never come out.

"We've already called the number you provided for your ride." The orderly stated, before nodding for Bird to follow her.

On unsteady legs, Bird tried her best to balance and slide on her shoes before having to rush after the orderly, who led her through the main dining room area on the floor of the asylum.

She held the metal door open and Bird walked in to find all eyes on her, and just like in her nightmare she couldn't breathe.

It was the morning breakfast lull as the inmates sluggishly moved around the room, many of them heavily medicated from their meds from the night before.

Others were alert and eating, some of the older ones were seated very close to the small television playing the morning news with subtitles on.

"Hey, B!" Barbara called out from where she was sitting at a round table by herself.  
"Morning." Bird greeted.

"Are you really getting out of here?" Jerome asked, seeming to appear beside her from out of nowhere, his eyes wide with their usual excitement whenever something happened to break the monotony of routine.

"That's what they tell me." She nodded and his smile grew as he proudly announced, "I made you something! A going away present."

With that he displayed a painted and glittered macaroni necklace, "I painted it red – like blood, to remind you of me."

Cracking a smile, Bird asked, "And the glitter?"

"That's all for you sunshine." He grinned, before sliding it on over her head, which prompted the orderly to glance at the number on his inmate uniform before instructing, "C-198 –back up."

Holding his hands up in surrender, Jerome took several steps backwards before giving an overly dramatic bow and walking over to get in line for breakfast.

Barbara flipped another page in the magazine she'd been reading, and looked up to see Bird was being led out the other side of the room.  
"Call me… or write me… or break me out of here!" Barbara called after her and Bird shook her head and yelled back, "Bye, B!"

After being led down several hallways and down an elevator, Bird was led into a small room where she was handed the very same clothes she'd been wearing the night she got there.  
"Change into your street clothes and I'll meet you outside." The orderly said as she started for the door.

"What you're not going to watch me change?" Bird bitterly replied, "No mandatory strip search on the way out, huh? Just on the way in-"

She blew out a sigh when the woman left the room and slammed the door in the middle of her rant.

This was madness, she thought to herself, as she quickly got to work on tearing the black and white striped dress she'd been wearing in off, letting the rough fabric fall to a messy pile on the floor.

Unzipping the large, clear bag, Bird pulled her own clothes out and brought them to her nose. They still faintly carried the scent of her favorite perfume.

She was dressed within just a couple minutes, clad in the same outfit she'd been wearing at her court date. Sitting down on the small bench against the wall, she pulled her shoes on and then found a small manila envelope in the bag that had been underneath all of her clothes.

A look of confusion spread over her face until she opened it and poured the contents out into her hand. There was a pair of diamond earrings and a matching necklace along a few of her bracelets and her engagement ring.

Swallowing hard, she slowly examined the ring before sliding it on her finger and then getting to work with the rest of her personal items.

She pulled the glittered macaroni necklace off her neck and dropped it into her box of belongings and then slightly fumbled with the clasp on her diamond necklace.

Finally, she was put back together –or at least looked it.

The day she'd spent well just over two months waiting for was here.  
She should have run to the door, been in a solo sprint race to get out of that building as fast as she possibly could.

Only, now here she sat. Dressed in her own clothes with her own jewelry and freedom just a few hallway lengths away and yet she found herself feeling more anxious about the thought of going home than she'd ever expected.

 **•••**

"The reporters weren't supposed to be let inside of the gates." Jim said with heaviness in his tone as he watched Bird crack the front doors of Arkham Asylum open before quickly letting them shut and staggering backwards a few steps once she spotted the crowd outside waiting to catch a glimpse of her.

"Funny isn't it?" Bird breathed, glancing over her shoulder to where he was standing and he caught the emptiness in her eyes when she explained, "For months all I've wanted is to get out of this place and now I'm having trouble getting my legs to carry me out of the doors."

"Maybe I've just been caged for too long." She added in a low whisper.

"The best thing you can do is just ignore them." He reminded her, "Don't let them get a rise out of you-"

"I know how to handle the spotlight, Jim." She argued, her eyes catching a spark of her old self before it faded. "Besides… what's the point of trying to hide? They already know everything and the things they don't know they just make up for a better story. Bend the truth to make it more interesting."

"You ready then?" He asked as he stepped closer to the doors and pulled in a deep breath, preparing himself for the circus waiting on the other side of the asylum doors.

After she'd been attacked as a teenager; raped and nearly killed, somehow the papers had gotten news of the day she was set to be released from the hospital and there were reporters and cameras waiting outside of Gotham General that day.

Her parents had tried to shield her from it the best they could, but knowing they couldn't just hide her away; her father had told her to stiffen her lip –show them how strong she was and to remember that no matter what anyone had to say to her; she was a survivor and there wasn't anything they could throw at her that she couldn't handle.

Slowly releasing the breath she'd been holding, Bird nodded and smoothed down the skirt she'd changed into.

Jim paused for a brief moment to give them both time to prepare before he pushed open the doors and as they stepped outside in front of all the people and cameras; the midday sun seemed more unforgiving than usual.

The bitter cold air whipped around them and Bird brushed her windblown hair from her face and eyes before she lowered her head and started to make her way through the crowd with Jim at her side –ordering the reporters to back up and give them space while he led her towards the car.

 _"Miss Wayne!"_

 _"Do you have anything to say to those who still think you're guilty?"_

 _"Is it true that Carmine Falcone is your biological father?"_

 _"What do you have to say about accusations of your ties to Crime Lord Oswald Cobblepot?"_

 _"Have you had any contact with your brother since entering Arkham?"_

 _"Miss Wayne!"_

 _"How does it feel to going home?"_

 _"Miss Wayne!"_

 _"Miss Wayne!"_

 _"Miss Wayne!"_

The badgering questions were muffled once Bird got into the passenger seat of the car and Jim quickly shut the door behind her.

Her breathing was erratic and it wasn't until she became aware of the warm spot on her side that she realized it was from Jim's hand where he'd had his arm around her trying to lead her through the crowd and do his best to shield her from the unrelenting questions.

Once he'd made it back around the car and got into the driver's seat, Jim locked the doors and started the car, pausing for just a moment to switch the heat on before driving away from the asylum leaving the reporters behind them in the frigid air.

"I'd ask if you were okay, but…" He breathed, glancing over at her as he slowed to a stop at a red light.

"I'm fine." She automatically replied without even thinking it over for a single second.

"I know that's not true." He simply stated without pushing her to open up.

"Thanks for coming to pick me up." Bird finally said as roughly pulled her hair up into a messy bun now that she was out from in front of the cameras.

"You're welcome." He replied, glancing back over at her as she relaxed more into the seat and her breathing slowly returned to normal.

"I was a little surprised when I got the call."

"I didn't have anyone else." Her eyes pinned shut and bitterness seeped into her words when she added, "It might have reflected badly on Harvey to be seen with me at Arkham in front of those cameras."

Without even taking a breath she continued, "I haven't spoken to Oswald since the night Fish was going to have all of us killed months ago and my little brother –who is usually way more adult than me… is being a little brat."

"Bruce wanted to be here." Jim reminded her, "You're the one who told him and Alfred that you didn't want them to be."

"Yeah, because they both thought I was guilty and Bruce hired a lawyer to get my shares in our father's company." Bird nearly hissed, shaking her head as she spoke. "And the last time you talked to him… he told you to collect that debt for Oswald so he could use his pull to get you –your job back. I'm not sure what's going on inside that head of his anymore."

"In all fairness, the evidence against you was pretty hard to dispute." Jim pointed out, taking in a breath before admitting, "If I hadn't seen you that night all the way across town from where the murders happened then I might have believed it too."

"Kids, Jim." Bird growled, "I wouldn't hurt a kid, let alone kill a mother and her two kids."

"They had you on tape threatening the lives of Bunderslaw and his entire family." Jim reminded her. "I know because he sent someone to infiltrate my brother's life and Alfred nearly died because of it. I needed Sid Bunderslaw to believe I'd come after him and everyone he cares about if he did something like that again… but I wasn't serious. If anything I'd have just killed him… not taken out his family!" Bird defended her words, before shaking her head at herself for not checking to see if there was security equipment in his office the day she went to threaten him.

"Bunderslaw is still missing."

"Yeah, and whoever took him has to be the same ones who killed his family and framed me for it."

Jim nodded in agreement, the only problem was that he didn't have the first clue where to look for the real guilty parties.  
The only thing he knew was that Bird had in fact been framed for the murders of Bunderslaw's family and that she'd been trying to turn things around in her life.  
So much so that she'd went about handling the charges against her legally and the system had failed her.

As he pulled up to a stop sign and put the turn signal on, she jerked her gaze over to his direction and quickly said, "I want to go to my apartment."

"But your house-"

"I just want to go home." She softly said, feeling like all her fight was spent, "To my apartment."

"Okay…" He breathed under his breath as he clicked the turn signal off, he questioned, "So you and Harvey…"

She didn't say anything in response to him, just turned her head and looked out of the window.

The next several moments passed in an awkward silence until Jim looked over at her and pointed out, "You're still wearing your engagement ring."

He directed his attention back to the road as he checked the mirrors and switched lanes, trying to appear as though he wasn't invested while awaiting a solid answer.

"Glad those months on street cop duty didn't hinder those detective skills." Bird stated, glancing at him before looking down at her hand and watching the diamonds reflect the morning sun.

"I just mean… when you said you wanted to go to your apartment instead of your house with Harvey…" His voice trailed off and he shrugged, not sure how to finish what he was getting at.

"All it means is that I'm not quite ready to see him yet." Bird said, not planning on going into detail, but ended up confiding, "I was in Arkham for months and at first he'd visit all the time. So confident that we were going to find a way get me out of there and then the more time that passed the less and less he came around. I guess it's not really his fault… seeing me in there was probably just another reminder of how we were supposed to have been starting our life together, but everything just went to hell so fast."

As he watched her from the corner of his eye, Jim saw her pull in a deep breath and open her mouth like she had more to add, but instead of continuing to talk she bit down on her lip and decided to keep her thoughts to herself.

The rest of the ride to her apartment building was mostly silent, aside from a few attempts from Jim at small talk as he tried to get a read on Bird and see just how much her time in the asylum had changed her.

"You didn't have to walk me in." She insisted with a small almost-smile as she glanced over her shoulder to see Jim had followed her in.

"Are you sure being alone is a good idea right now?" He questioned, his eyes looking over the now sparsely furnished space.

"Why?" She questioned with a scoff, "Afraid I might have a mental breakdown and end up in a place like Arkham?"

Giving her an unamused expression, he sighed, "More like the fact that someone framed you for a serious crime and you nearly died."

"I can handle myself." She declared, running her fingers through her hair and thinking out loud, "Besides, if someone is still after me then it's probably best I stay away from the people I care about. We both know how easily innocent people can get caught in the crosshairs."

Jim bit down on the side of his tongue and stopped himself from lecturing her on how serious of a situation this was.

Apparently, Arkham hadn't changed her so much after all –she still appeared to be the girl who didn't take anything seriously.

"Does it seem musty in here to you?" She mumbled under her breath as she crossed the room and started opening the windows against the far wall.

Jim's eyes fell to the small box she'd brought with her from Arkham.  
There were a few pictures and other small odds and ends, but his attention was drawn to a red painted macaroni necklace.

When Bird turned back around from opening the windows, she saw Jim pick the necklace up and give her a questioning look with raised eyebrows.

"We had art days in there." Bird chuckled, "Pretty much a repeat of arts and crafts from grade school."

"Well, at least you put your time in there to good use." He jested.

"Ha-ha." Bird rolled her eyes, "And I didn't make that. It was a present from Jerome."

"Valeska?" Jim's tone of voice changed as he dropped it back into the box and she saw the judgmental expression return that would frequent his face when dealing with her.

"Don't give me that look." She accused, "Shame me for consorting with certain people? You have no idea what it was like in there. You might have been a guard there last year, but it's an entirely different thing to be locked in there against your will. If I hadn't made friends in there…" Her voice trailed off and she shrugged.

"You were in that room when he confessed to killing his mother." Jim reminded her, "Or did you forget the part where he graphically described plunging that hatchet into her over and over again?"

"How quickly you forget it wasn't that long ago that you got your own hands dirty, Jim." Her eyebrow arched at him, "When you came to visit me and told me how Oswald wanted you to collect a debt for him, I warned you not to do it. But you didn't listen to me and you ended up killing someone."

"I had to get my job back." Jim defended, but aside from that, he didn't have much to say to justify what had happened.  
After taking a stand against Loeb months ago during the gang war between Falcone and Maroni, Jim had been demoted to working the beat as a traffic cop. Loeb was trying to force him to quit, but Jim was a cop above all else and he wasn't going to let the commissioner win.

Finally, Jim had ended up going to see Oswald in hopes that he could use his new pull as a crime lord to get him reinstated as a detective. But it seemed as though Oswald had tired of doing him favors without anything in return and promised that if Jim collected a debt for him that he'd get him his old job back.

At first, he'd been hesitant to do so, but feeling like he didn't have any other options, he'd went to collect on the debt and ended up having to kill the man.

"I told you that Oswald has a reason behind everything he does and that it wasn't going to be as simple as just picking up dues for him-"

"Yeah, I remember." Jim gruffly countered.

The apartment fell back into silence with both of them avoiding eye contact with the other until Jim finally said, "I should get going. You sure you're going to be okay here alone?"

"I'll be fine." Bird assured him. Stopping him just as he was leaving she added, "I don't think I ever said it… but, thank you for always coming to visit me when I was in Arkham."

 **••• Flashback/months ago •••**

"You awake?" Harvey softly asked as he sat down at their dining room table next to Bird who had her head on her arms that were resting on the table and he gently ran a comforting hand over her back.

Raising her head Bird weakly said, "Define awake –because honestly, I feel like I'm living a nightmare here."

Motioning to all of the paperwork spread out over the oak surface she said, "I hate this, I hate this so bad! Airing everything I've been through –the court looking into my medical records and…"

With a weak shrug, she admitted, "I think a trial wouldn't even be this bad."

Seeing the look on his face and knowing he was about to shoot the idea down, Bird quickly said, "I could take the stand, right? Tell my side of the story –tell the truth and maybe the jury would believe me. Then this entire thing would be over and we could just go back to how things were."

"Baby…" He sighed, shaking his head as he pointed out, "Your side of the story is that you're missing an entire week from your memory and that someone is framing you for homicide-"

"That's the truth!" She complained, sounding a little frantic as she spoke.

"I know." He nodded, "But the hard truth is… it's just that if this case goes to trial right now, you're going to be convicted. The public already has their minds made up that you're guilty and I've been doing some digging around the office at work and the prosecution has a really strong case."

Clearing his throat he continued, "I have no doubt that if this actually goes to trial that you'll leave court that day on a bus to spend the rest of your life on the women's wing of Blackgate."

Reaching out he took her hand in his and his heart hurt in his chest at feeling how her cold fingers were trembling. All he wanted to do was make her problems disappear; for them to go back to the way things were before she'd gone missing for a week and everything just spiraled downward.

"You cannot go to Blackgate Penitentiary." Harvey said, in a solid tone. "I have put a lot of people away in there and your relationship with me will put you in grave danger. It would be like walking around with a bullseye on your back. Getting the trial pushed back indefinitely while we try to get to the bottom of what really happened is the best option here, it's the smartest move and for that to happen we have to prove that you're unfit to stand trial for the crimes."

"Indefinitely? I just want this whole thing to be over." She confided, worry lining her forehead as she continued with an exasperated almost frantic tone, "Is this what I worked so hard for? To have the city turn against me for crimes I didn't even commit? This whole thing; this whole situation is crazy, Harvey."

With a shrug, she sighed, "Maybe this is some kind of sign."

"What are you talking about?" He questioned, his eyes never leaving her face. "A sign that it was all for nothing, I don't know. Maybe this is just to show me that no matter how hard I try to change who I am –it doesn't matter."  
She shrugged again, trying to distance herself from the emotions and fear building up inside of her.

"You are still you." He pointed out, "You're just trying to build a better life… making better choices-"

"Yeah, and where did that get me?" She unintentionally snapped, bitterness nipping at the tip of her tongue and the food souring in her stomach when she continued, "The old me could have dealt with this. Even if I couldn't make these charges disappear, I could have called in some favors… but I cut all ties with everyone who could have helped."

Shaking her head she considered out loud, "Maybe I burnt bridges a little too soon."

"Listen to me… we are going to fight this and we'll win, it's just going to take a little time." He assured her.

"Things get handled so much faster when you're living outside of the law… maybe I should call Oswald, or even see if I can get a lead on where Falcone disappeared too…" Her voice trailed off, already knowing he was going to shoot the idea down.

Reaching out he gently took hold of her chin and turned her head until she faced him again as he argued, "No, you got away from that life; away from those people for a reason. Don't throw everything away because of this. We will fight this from inside the law and things will eventually get back to normal and we can move on and forget about this."

There was a hopefulness in his tone that she couldn't share and at the moment she was wishing they'd just fled Gotham back when he'd been trying to convince her to leave with him. Leaning in he pressed a kiss to her lips and she melted into him.

His confidence and hope were nearly enough to convince her things would one day be okay again, but with each passing day, it was getting harder and harder to hold onto that feeling.  
They were supposed to be finally starting their life together, not fighting off homicide charges.

"Maybe we should move the wedding up." He softly said as he pulled back just enough to speak.

"Move it up from when? We never even got around to setting an official date." She reminded him, leaning her head back farther to get a better look at him.

"I know, but-" He started to say, but Bird didn't let him finish when she added, "And I can't leave our property."

With that, her eyes fell down to the location monitoring device secured around her ankle.

"We could have the wedding here." He offered up a solution, but his eagerness on the matter only caused her to get suspicious.

"Does this have anything to do with how the courts can't force married couples to testify against each other?" Bird guessed, knowing there was still a chance she might actually have to stand trial for the triple homicide.

Blowing out a sigh he gave a small nod as he pointed out, "Starling, the things I know about you… about the crimes you've committed –it would be damning if they called me to take the stand."

"Damning for me, or damning for you to have to admit how much you know?" Bird asked, and she saw his jaw tense in anger, though there was a look of sadness in his eyes when he questioned, "What are you saying?"

"I'm just saying it wouldn't look good for you to have to admit your knowledge of crimes I've committed." She pointed out and before Harvey had a chance to give any thought to his words he argued, "It doesn't exactly reflect well on me now –with the pending charges against you."

Her mouth hung open and she roughly pulled her hand away from his grip and snapped, "So what? You'd be doing me a favor by marrying me then?"

"I didn't mean that the way it sounded." He quickly cut in, "I didn't think before I said that. I'm sorry."

Pulling in a deep breath, he looked around their dining room before adding, "I was just trying to say that it's not me I'm worried about here, it's you and what could happen if this goes to trial. I don't want to start a fight with you."

"And I don't want to rush into some spur of the moment wedding just so they can't force you to testify against me. It feels too much like some sort of business arrangement." She complained, shaking her head back and forth as she stood from her seat and walked into the kitchen.

Harvey followed her, leaning against the doorway as he watched her open a bottle of apple juice and take a drink from it.  
Turning around she sat the small bottle down on the island in the middle of their kitchen and looked up at him when he offered, "We could just do this to make it official in the eyes of the law and then once this is all over we can have an actual wedding, a big ceremony or whatever you want."

"No." Bird asserted.

"Why not?" Harvey asked, holding his arms out to the side as he spoke, "I want to marry you and you want to marry me, so what does it even matter how or when it happens?"  
His head slightly cocked to the side when he questioned, "You do still want to get married, right?"

"Of course I do!" She exclaimed, taking another drink of her juice.

Her mind drifted back to what Butch had told her once and Bird admitted, "An old friend told me once that once someone is in the world of organized crime long enough that everything, even relationships become business. If we do this solely to avoid you testifying against me, then at the end of the day it really is all just business and I don't want that."

Walking up to him, she laid her hands flat against his chest and leaned up claiming his mouth with a passionate kiss, before pulled back and saying, "You were right before… we should have just packed our bags and ran from this city."

Before he could say anything Bird offered, "It's not too late, you know? I could cut this thing off my ankle and we can take off. Disappear somewhere far away from Gotham City. How do you feel about Italy?"

A smile toyed at the corner of his mouth as he watched her. "I don't know, I've never been to Italy."

"You'd love it!" Bird assured him, "Especially Venice-"

"You were the one who was right to shoot down the idea of fleeing. If you start running, you'll always be running and that's no way to live. You were right before –to stay and see things through." He kissed her and as he pulled back, he gently trailed his thumb over her bottom lip and said, "We'll get through this –we've weathered some pretty rough storms together and we'll fight this one too."

 **•••**

"Miss Wayne." The judge said as she looked through the lenses of her glasses that sat close to the tip of her nose, leaning forward in her chair she looked the young woman over and pulled in a deep breath.

Bird nervously looked over to her lawyer who gave her a reassuring nod, trying to ease her nerves.

"Due to all of the evidence and testimony I've heard over the last week, along with your personal history of mental illness and time spent institutionalized… it is the determination of this court that, as of now, you are unfit to stand trial for the charges brought against you." The judge said, eyeing the small gathering of people in the closed room, before her gaze fell back on Bird and she continued, "I hereby order you to immediately enter into in-patient treatment and be re-evaluated every three months until the court feels you're ready and competent enough to stand trial. Do you understand?"

Bird's mouth hung slightly open as she fought for her breath in the stuffy room with air that felt far too thick.

Glancing over her shoulder she looked at the back of the courtroom where Alfred and Bruce were sitting before she looked at the first row of seats just behind her and her eyes locked with Harvey.

Swallowing hard, she turned back and nodded, "I understand."

"Your honor, if I may?" Bird's lawyer, Erin Windsor asked.

"Yes?"

"As you can see from the list in front of you –the prosecution and my client have agreed on several institutions where Miss Wayne will be able to receive the help that she needs. We'll leave it up to the court to decide which one is best suited for her case." Erin said, giving the unimpressed judge a pearly white smile.

"I see that, yes…" Judge Eldridge nodded, barely glancing at the list for a few seconds before she pushed her glasses back up on her nose and said, "But that won't be necessary. It is the judgment of this court that Starling Wayne will be remanded to Arkham Asylum until the time comes for her to stand trial."

"Your honor!" Erin protested, "The building is nearly two-hundred years old! My client is very vulnerable both mentally and emotionally, and I cannot foresee any good coming out of locking her up with the prisoners there."

"The places on this list might as well have a five-star resort marking next to them, Mrs. Windsor. I can't, in good judgment, allow your client to spend her time awaiting trial in what could be considered a spa. Arkham has been upgraded, retrofitted to meet today's standards and will provide both the help she needs and peace of mind to the citizens of Gotham, knowing that she's in a secure facility where she can't simply walk out of a back exit." Judge Eldridge explained, her voice echoing through the room with the need to defend herself and her judgment.

"This is ridiculous!" Harvey angrily exclaimed as he stood from where he'd been sitting, unable to hold his anger in for a moment longer.

"Counselor Dent!" The judge snapped, her stone cold gaze landing on him as she commented, "I'm surprised at your outburst. Control yourself, or I will have you removed from my courtroom."

"With all due respect, you're making a mistake." Harvey continued, unable to stop himself as he walked up beside the defense desk and loudly exclaimed, "Sending her to a place like Arkham will do more harm than good. The people in there are-"

"Insane?" The judge cut him off, before she nodded, "Criminally insane."

Harvey looked over to see Bird starring back at him with a shell-shocked expression on her face, and his voice lowered as he turned back towards the stand and argued, "You can't do this."

"I can and I am. Now take a seat, Counselor Dent. I will not ask you again."

"Sit down!" Erin whisper yelled at him, rubbing her forehead and thinking he was only going to end up making things worse for her client.

She looked towards the judge and said, "Your honor, if I may-"

"You may not. My decision is final."

"Who's paying you?" Bird suddenly yelled out, her heart racing frantically inside of her chest as she spoke. Her sweaty hands were desperately gripping onto the wooden table in front of her, and her eyes were wide with an almost wild look in them.

"Enough!" Judge Eldridge yelled, "I am deeply offended by that insinuation."

Waving her hand through the air in front of her, she shook her head back and forth before saying, "Miss. Wayne, you will be reevaluated in three mont's' time."  
The sentence was sealed with a bang of her gavel and Bird was roughly pulled to her feet by the bailiff.

"Let go of me!" She yelled, struggling to get free, while her lawyer tried to assure her it was only temporary until they could get the charges dropped.

The scene quickly turned to chaos as Harvey tried to intervene and get to Bird, but was restrained by two guards and had to helplessly watch as a few more guards were called in to remove Bird from the courtroom and take her to Arkham.

His stomach was all twisted up and mind was racing, this was a curveball he hadn't seen coming and he was already growing increasingly afraid that after spending time in Arkham, that when he got his fiancé back she wouldn't be the same.

 **•••**

"Clothes and any jewelry in the bag." Bird's continuously dizzying gaze snapped up to the woman speaking to her, dressed in an all-white nurses uniform.

"What?" Bird managed to ask.

In an irritated voice the female police officer in the room with them, repeated, "Clothing and personal possessions in the bag." She nodded towards a large zip-locked bag on the table in the center of the room.

Bird's eyes fell to where the officer was holding her nightstick and was ready to snap into action in case she tried anything.

Slowly she did as she was told, took off her earrings first, followed by her bracelets and finally her diamond necklace.

"The ring." The nurse said, nodding to Bird's hand.

"Oh… no, this is my engagement ring." She argued, not wanting to part with it.

"Congratulations." The nurse gruffly said, "Put it in the bag."

Moving painfully slow, Bird finally removed the ring that had become one of her most prized possessions and sat it in the bag before she got to work removing her shoes, shirt, and skirt until she was left in only her bra and underwear standing under the fluorescent lighting in the room.

"Bra and panties too." The nurse said before explaining, "Undergarments will be provided to you here."

Pinning her eyes shut, Bird prayed that when she opened them she'd be back home in bed and realize it was all just a dream.

Some horrible nightmare –it just had to be, this couldn't be happening.

It was impossible –yet, when she opened her eyes she was still in hell.

Knowing there was no way out of it, Bird slowly reached her shaking hands behind her and began unfastening the clips on her bra. The room seemed to be feeling colder by the second and by the time she finally pulled the padded cups from her body she could have sworn someone had turned the air conditioning on –on full blast right next to her.

Not making eye contact with anyone in the room, she pulled her underwear off and placed them in the bag before quickly trying to cover up her exposed body with an arm over her chest and a hand down lower.

Aside from when she'd been attacked as a teenager, she couldn't ever remember feeling more exposed or violated and in those moments she'd have sworn it couldn't have gotten any worse; she was wrong.

"Squat and cough."

"Excuse me?" Bird gasped, violently shivering from the cold as she spoke and struggled to cover up her nude body, "I swear to you I'm not trying to smuggle anything in here-"

"Squat and cough." The nurse repeated, "We can't just take your word for it."

"No… I won't." Bird argued, tears stinging at her eyes as she spoke and she could no longer catch her breath. "N-no… this… they do this stuff at prisons-"

"Look around you, kid. This is a prison." The officer sighed, "We house the criminally insane here. You're not patients –you're inmates. Now just do what you're told because I really don't want to do a full cavity search and I'd bet you don't want that either."

"This… this isn't happening." Bird breathed under her breath, pinning her eyes shut to hold the tears in then whispered, "Please tell me this isn't happening."

Unable to hold them in for any longer, a few tears started to run down her cheeks as she finally did what she'd been told and turned around, lowered down and gave a few deep coughs.

Once she was finally allowed to put the faded black and white striped dress on they'd given her, she held onto herself –still feeling like every inch of her was still out on display despite now being fully clothed.

The nurse led her down a few dimly lit hallways until they reached a wing that required a key code to open the door.

As Bird crossed the threshold she saw it was another hallway, a much shorter one lined with doors. People were screaming and talking and the lights running the length of the hall were all buzzing so loudly she felt like her ears were going to start bleeding.

"You're being held on this wing for your first seventy-two hours for evaluation and detox of any substances you might currently be on. There will be no visitors or phone calls, no incoming or outgoing mail during that time."

"Wait…" Bird helplessly breathed, as he looked into the door of what appeared to be a padded cell.

"It's for everyone's well-being, we need to see how you're going to respond before we can release you onto one of the general floors." The nurse sighed, clearly fed up and irritated with all her delays and questions.

"I don't intend on hurting anyone… I don't need to be locked up in a padded room. I just…" Her tears started back up again, and for the first time in a very long time she felt completely hopeless –like the light at the end of the tunnel she'd fought to reach had burnt out.

"You killed three people-"

"I did not!" Bird argued, "I didn't kill them, I swear to you I didn't lay a finger on any of them. I'm being framed… set up."

"Save it for your lawyer and the judge. Now in you go." She said as she roughly pushed Bird into the room and slammed the door shut behind her.

Nothing felt real to her anymore as Bird backed away from the door until her back hit the back padded wall. Somehow she felt like she was both floating aimlessly and drowning at the same time.

This was a complete nightmare, this was hell and the longer she stood there the worse she felt.

The room smelled of spoiled milk and urine and there was a prickly feeling on her skin that a hundred hot showers couldn't wash away.

Making it over to the corner of the room, everything hit her at once and the food she'd eaten for lunch came back up.

Choking through her tears, she gagged and fought against the nausea, but there was no stopping it as she continued to retch until her body ached and nothing but bile was coming up.

Falling onto the floor, she moaned in pain and held onto her sides until she could finally muster the strength to make it to the door.

But no one came to answer her cries for help and finally Bird gave up on trying.

Moving to the corner farthest away from where she'd thrown up, she laid down on the cold floor and did her best to curl up and keep her legs inside the fabric of the dress.

Wrapping her arms around herself and trying to stay warm, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and tears flooded down her cheeks and onto the cracked white padding beneath her.

 **•••**

* * *

 **A/N – Thank you all for reading! I hope you're liking the story so far! :)**

 **I hadn't planned to get this story up so soon.**

 **As you can see, quite a bit happened to Bird since We Were Born Sick ended; you can expect quite a few flashbacks revealing more of her time in Arkham.**

 **You can always find me on Tumblr (username: twofacedharveydent). I'm almost always posting story related content and making edits on there.**

 **I hope you'll leave a review and let me know if you're reading and what you thought. I'm so excited to share the rest of Bird's story with you!**

 **xx**


	2. Show Me Your Teeth

**II**

 _"She is free in her wildness, she is a wanderess, a drop of free water. She knows nothing of borders and cares nothing for rules or customs. 'Time' for her isn't something to fight against." ― Roman Payne_

* * *

 **•••** **flashback •••**

"Miss Wayne, you know you are allowed out of your room through the day. You don't have to keep yourself all cooped up in here all the time." Nurse Greta said as she stood in the young woman's doorway and watched her as Bird lay on her bed and stared up to the dirty, paint chipped ceiling.

Bird looked over to the one of the few nice people employed by Arkham Asylum and gave a small nod, "I'd rather be in here."

"Isolation isn't good for your mental state." The nurse softly said, "Human beings are made to be social, constantly seeking out companionship. You might be doing yourself more harm than good staying closed off in here."

"Humans, huh?" Bird scoffed, "Nine times out of ten, I'm being referred to as 'inmate A-138'. This place… the people in it are trying to strip my humanity away."

She gave a small nod in agreement, she'd witnessed her fellow staff members treating the prisoners there as something far less than human. It made her sick to see, but all she felt she could do was be as gentle with them as possible –hoping that some of the good she was doing would help cancel out the atrocities they'd been through.

"You have a visitor." Nurse Greta finally said, offering the young woman a smile as she commented, "Maybe this will lift your spirits some?"

Standing up, Bird silently followed her to one of the visiting rooms. As they reached the door, the nurse commented, "You know, very few people in here are allowed unsupervised visits."

"My lawyer set it up." Bird shrugged, knowing what she really meant was that on her behalf, Erin had paid a large amount to the people who ran the asylum to get her some perks that other inmates weren't allowed.

Eyeing her for a moment, Greta finally opened the door to the room and motioned for her to go inside.

Bird slowly walked in, expecting it to be her lawyer again –the only person who'd been there to see her since she'd been cleared for visitors. She didn't even bother looking up until the door was shut behind her.

"Harvey!" She exclaimed, her brown eyes wide when she finally looked to see who was there to see her.

"I've been trying to get in here all week to see you-" He started to explain, but as she rushed forward and threw herself into his arms the impact knocked the air out of him and he couldn't finish his sentence.

His eyes closed and his arms tightened around her, relieved to see she at least physically seemed to be holding up well under the conditions she was being forced to live in and the constant state of stress she must be under.

"I've missed you so much." She said, her voice muffled against the fabric of his shirt, breathing in deeply she continued, "And you smell so good… so clean."

Leaning back enough to look at him she complained, "This place smells terrible, Harvey. I miss the scent of your cologne and my black jasmine soap and those cinnamon berry wax melts I bought, and…" Her voice trailed off when she swallowed hard and leaned her face back against him, fingers clutching desperately onto the fabric of his shirt as she whispered, "I miss all of the scents of our house… I miss home."

"I know." He quietly said, holding onto her tightly and pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "I miss you too. Every second of every single day, it kills me knowing you're in here."

Finally letting go of each other, they sat down across from each other at the table and she admitted, "I was starting to think you weren't coming to see me."

"I've been trying." He explained, a pained look on his face at seeing the broken look in her eyes. "You wouldn't believe all the paperwork I had to fill out to just be able to get in here. The whole process is painstakingly long –I think they're trying to discourage anyone from visiting."

His eyes darted back and forth over her face as he asked, "How are you?"

"Not good." Bird admitted, "I'm barely sleeping –when I do sleep it's nothing but nightmares and I spend like twenty-something hours a day alone in my room. This place… it's not good for me." Taking a deep breath she added, "I'm thinking about having Erin set up another evaluation to prove I'm ready to stand trial."

"No." He dismissively said, "You think life in Blackgate is going to be any better?"

"Harvey, yesterday at lunch this guy sat down at my table; his name is Greenwood and do you know what he's in here for?" Bird asked.

"No…" He breathed.

"He killed twelve women and then he _ate_ them." Bird flatly stated, "I'm locked up in here with cannibals."

He stared back at her with a horrified look on his face and Bird nodded, "I have to get out of here."

"I know, and we'll get you out. We're doing everything we can." He assured her, his eyes lighting up a little as he admitted, "There's a service station just outside of The Narrows and the owner says that he thinks he remembers seeing you on a Wednesday night about two o'clock in the morning-"

"So what?" Bird pushed.

"So… the coroner estimates the time of death of the victims between one-thirty and three a.m Wednesday night. They were killed on the other side of town, way too far of a distance from the service station for you to have done it." He explained. "There's surveillance footage from an old camera on the side of the building-"

"Then that's all we need right?" Bird asked, her eyes widening.

"Not really." Harvey sighed, hating to know he was letting her down. "The footage is grainy and dark, but Erin has someone trying to clean it up so we can hopefully tell if the person on the tape is really you. It's a good start though."

"Yeah, I guess it is." She nodded, somehow managing a small smile in spite of it feeling like her heart had just dropped through the floor beneath them.

"I know this is hard." He quietly said, reaching out and taking hold of her hand.

"But it's just temporary… yeah, I know." She replied, hoping she didn't sound nearly as bitter as she was starting to feel inside.

"Have you heard from Bruce?" Bird asked, trying to change the subject.

"No…" Harvey answered. "Not since your last day in court."

"Probably because he thinks I really did it." She scoffed, but Harvey tried to make her feel better as he explained, "It looks bad… all the evidence stacked against you, it looks really bad and he probably just needs some time to figure things out for himself."

"Whatever, it doesn't matter anyway." She sighed, trying to act like it didn't matter to her, but Harvey could easily see past the façade.

They'd only been able to talk for about twenty more minutes before one of the orderlies came in and accounted visiting was over.

Getting out of her seat, Bird stood up and looked at Harvey as he also stood and walked up to her. Leaning down he tilted her chin up so she'd face him as he said, "You're not allowed to have much in here, but they did say you could have books and magazines so I brought you some stuff. I was told they had to check it over to make sure I wasn't trying to smuggle anything in… then they'll put it all in your room."

Bird nodded, tensing the muscles in her jaws to try and keep her chin from quivering at knowing he was getting to leave –getting to walk out the doors free while she remained a prisoner within the walls.

"I'll be back as soon as I can." He promised, leaning down as he spoke and Bird quickly raised up on her feet and hungrily pressed her mouth to his. Her fists clutched onto his shirt with desperation; trying to forget where she was and how short her time with him had been. She needed something to take her mind off of what was happening, she just wanted to start feeling normal again.

 **•••** **end of flashback •••**

Bird unlocked the front door of the house she'd bought with Harvey and stepped inside, immediately realizing it didn't smell the same as when she'd left.

When they were getting the house set up long before she ended up framed for murder and put in Arkham, back when they were still moving in and making the house a home, Bird had bought heated wax warmers to go throughout the house along with about fifty packs of the cinnamon apple berry scented wax cubes she'd fell in love with.

Closing the door behind her, she headed straight for the decorative end table in the living room where the wax burner was. At least everything seemed to be in the same place, she thought to herself as she came to a stop at the table and looked down to the green melted wax sitting in the tray. Leaning down she sniffed at it and her nose quickly wrinkled in response.

She couldn't pinpoint what scent it was supposed to be –possibly something resembling pine. How dare he, she thought, how dare he start changing things in _their_ house.  
Did he not expect her to be coming back?

Anger flashed red behind her eyes and she picked up the wax burner so fast she spilled the wax out onto the floor and the plugin sparked from how fast she jerked the cord out of the outlet.

Storming into the kitchen, she stomped on the lever to pop the top of the trash can open and threw the entire thing in.

Before she was even fully aware of her actions, she'd opened the refrigerator and started tossing out the foods that she, herself, didn't care for. Foods that she didn't remember being in there before Arkham.  
Her nose wrinkled at a bottle of bleu cheese salad dressing and she added that to the ever filling trash bin before noticing she didn't recognize a skillet hanging on the hooks next to the stove.

Her feet hit heavily against the tile floor as she grabbed the skillet up before swooping up a coffee cup from the counter as went back to the trashcan. When she ran out of room, she roughly pulled the entire lid off the bin and started to pull the trash bag out when she finally came back to her senses.

Looking down into the bag filled with the scent wax burner, new skillet, food and other random items, her breathing grew shallow.

 _What the hell was she doing?_

Swallowing hard, she backed up until her back hit the wall and slid down onto the floor. On the surface she was mad at the things he'd changed in their house, but when she really forced herself to take a look around, she couldn't deny it went so much deeper than that.

It was hard to pinpoint the exact moment her anger at him had started to churn and grow. Maybe it was around the time he kept insisting she had to fight the charges again her legally, if not then –then it had to have been the first couple of visits he missed.  
She remembered breaking one of the phones in the asylum when she called during her usual phone time and he didn't answer.

A frustrated noise bellowed from her mouth, muffled against her hands as she roughly rubbed her face and tucked her hair behind her ears.

Hearing the front door open, Bird scrambled to her feet and looked towards the doorway as Harvey walked into the kitchen and came to a stop when he saw her.

Their eyes met and she swallowed hard, it was the first time she'd seen him in two weeks. She wasn't sure what to say in a situation like this, she wasn't even sure she should have waited around after hearing the door open.

"Thank God!" He breathed as he rushed forward and wrapped his arms around her in an embrace so tight she could barely catch her breath.

Slowly, she raised her arms and held onto him too, but she couldn't entirely relax in his arms –not the way she used to.

"You weren't answering your phone and I was going out of my mind until I got a call from John, that he'd seen someone going into the house-"

"Who's John?" Bird questioned, a near blank expression fell over her face as he finally let go of her and took a step back to look her over.

"John Alforde, our neighbor on the right." Harvey explained, his face lined with worry as he asked, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine…" She breathed, her own face twisting as she asked, "You met our neighbors? And one of them called you because they saw me going into the house… it's my house too."

Seeming to either not hear her or simply not comment on what she said, Harvey asked, "Are you sure you're okay? When you didn't come home after getting released from Arkham, I assumed you were staying at your apartment and then when I saw the news… well, like I said –I was going out of my mind when I couldn't reach you on the phone."

"What are you talking about?" Bird asked, her jaw hung loosely as she stared at him.

"Your apartment building."

"What about my apartment building."

"The explosion…" Harvey carefully said.

"The what?" She asked, her eyes widening as an inappropriately timed laugh slipped out, "No, no… I just came from there and there was no explosion."

"You really didn't know?" He asked, rubbing his hands down her arms and apologizing, "I'm sorry. I know you loved that apartment, but the most important thing is that you weren't there when it happened."

Pulling away from him, she silently turned and walked into the living room, ignoring his questions as she went. Locating the remote on the coffee table, she switched the television on to find it was already on a news channel with coverage of the building explosion.

"Oh my god…" She breathed, her throat felt like it was getting smaller by the second and her mouth grew uncomfortably dry with each passing second of watching the building she once called home lying in near ruin as fire crews still worked to keep the flames contained that had spread to nearby buildings from the explosion.

"Starling…" Harvey breathed as he slowly walked up behind her, but she wouldn't turn around to face him. Gently, he placed a hand on her arm and started to turn her around so he could see her.

Once she was facing him, he could see the tears welling up in her reddening eyes.

"How could you meet our neighbors without me?" She caught him off guard with the last question he'd expected her to ask in a moment like that.

"We bought this house together, Harvey. Put in all that work and time and money trying to make this place into our home and then the minute I'm locked away –you start exchanging numbers with our neighbors. How could you?" She hoarsely asked, her face contorted in pain as she spoke.  
Like it was a struggle to get each word out.

"I don't think you're upset about the neighbors." He argued, "I think you're upset because of your apartment."

Her breathing started to grow uneven again and she pushed past him to get back into the kitchen. Filling up a glass with water, she brought it to her lips and it wasn't until some of it had spilled out onto her shirt that she realized her hands were trembling.

Setting the glass down on the counter, she closed her eyes and tried to get a hold of herself while blocking out the sound of his voice when he followed her.

Finally, the ringing that hard started to sound from deep within her ears subsided and she pulled in a breath of air.

"Starling?"

"Yes?" Bird breathed, slowly turning around to face him.

"Maybe you are mad about the neighbors." He finally conceded, "Mad that I did things without you and I'm sorry for that." A guilty look filled his eyes and he said, "I'm sorry."

"Sorry?" She asked, the bitterness of her words already nipping at her tongue before she even spoke them, "For what exactly? F-for telling me to handle things legally? For convincing me that pleading insanity was going to the best outcome for the moment? For not answering when I called you, or missing visits on the days you promised to be there? Or maybe it's because you changed the wax cubes and bought a new skillet without me."

Swallowing hard and being mildly aware that some of what was coming out of her mouth was irrational, she couldn't stop herself as her voice cracked and she asked, "Why the hell did you change the wax cubes? I bought those berry cinnamon apple ones because I just… I just loved them so much."

By the end of her words, the tears she'd been fighting to keep in her eyes were sliding down her face and her jaw hurt from trying to keep her chin from quivering.

"For all of it." He said, clearing his throat and trying to swallow down the lump he could feel growing inside. "But you have to understand that just because your life got put on hold for those months, mine didn't. You don't know what it was like for me, all I wanted to do was get you out of there, bring you back home and I couldn't."

"I don't know what it was like?" Bird scoffed, her eyes glistening under the ceiling lights, "You have no idea what it was like for me being locked up in that place!"

"You're right!" He yelled, shaking his head back and forth as his own voice wavered with emotion, "Because you wouldn't tell me! You just shut down on me, Starling. When I'd come to visit… when you'd call home; I was lucky to get a couple words out of you. I wanted to be there, okay? I wanted to help you through everything, but I can't help when you shut me out."

"What good would it have done?" She screamed, tossing her arms out to the side in exasperation and letting them carelessly fall back into place, "Knowing the stuff that was going on in there would have just drove you crazy, Harvey. You couldn't have fixed anything."

Taking a step forward he argued with her, "I didn't need you to protect me from the bad things. I just needed to know that you were still in this with me. To know that you were somewhere inside that shell I saw after the first few visits."

"And I needed you." She admitted, blinking rapidly and drying up her tears, "I needed you to be there when I didn't feel like talking about anything, to come and see me even when I hadn't brushed my hair in days! Don't you get that? I needed you to pick up the phone when I called, even if we just listened to each other breathe because I wanted to know if I even had anything to come home too."

"Of course you do." He urged, "You have always had me. You still do. But I couldn't stomach it anymore. Seeing you in that place –seeing what being in there was doing to you and feeling so helpless to do anything.

Roughly running his hands through his perfectly combed hair and leaving it a disheveled mess, he asked, "Don't you think I wanted to tear that building down brick-by-brick to get you out of there? Because I wanted too! I did everything I could to get you out, I didn't sleep. Going over the evidence, looking for something that somebody else missed; tried to find something, anything to help you. But it wasn't enough. And I hate myself for it, but I started to dread the visits… I felt sick waiting for the phone to ring because I never had good news or anything to keep your hope alive."

Swallowing down emotion, he stepped closer to her, "There we were. Engaged, happy, talking about wedding dates and what bakery to get the cake from and the next thing I knew… you were gone. Literally vanished –for an entire week! And I even know if you were alive or dead –whether it was a mob thing or if you decided this wasn't what you wanted and fled on me. We were planning our lives together and the next thing I know, I'm sitting in an interrogation room at the GCPD with two idiots trying the good cop – bad cop routine on me because apparently after you disappeared, Jim Gordon told Sarah Essen that I've been violent with you in the past. There were people who thought I'd killed you, Starling. My entire world collapsed and then I get a call that two cops pulled you off the edge of a bridge in the middle of the night –covered in blood and completely out of your mind screaming about how you were a bird and born to fly. You nearly killed yourself."

"Because someone drugged me!" She hissed, "I am missing an entire week from my memory, I literally have no idea what I did during that time. You can't imagine how that feels."

"You're right." He agreed, "I don't. But I do know how it feels to be living in a nightmare. This didn't just happen to you."

"I know." Her voice was now so low that he could hardly even hear her.

Finally she raised her head and their eyes locked. Giving a weak shrug she questioned, "So what now? Where do we even go from here?"

"We fix it." Harvey answered, walking the rest of the way up to her and holding onto the side of her face as he brushed the still lingering trail from her tears away with his thumb, "I screwed up… again." He added with a half-smile.

"You did." Bird agreed, her face still twisted up in pain.

"So let me fix this… again."

"Are you sure you still want to?" Bird asked, looking up to his face as she spoke.  
After everything that had happened, she wasn't so sure what she wanted his answer to be.

"Yes." He confidently said, before leaning down and claiming her mouth with his own. He could taste the saltiness of her tears on her lips.  
Pulling back, he rested his forehead against hers and admitted, "I'm not entirely how sure how to fix this… but I do know that I still love you, I never stopped loving you and we'll figure the rest out."

Gently she nodded her head and somehow found the strength to manage a small smile –one that didn't quite reach to her eyes.

She was envious of him and his 'everything will work out' attitude. She didn't know what she believed in anymore, but a part of her still believed in him and if he still believed in them –then maybe there was a chance they could steer their lives back on track.

When his phone rang from his pocket, he let out a sigh and breathed, "I rushed out of the office after hearing about your apartment building and then got the call from John."

They stared at each other for a few seconds before he said, "It doesn't matter, I'll just take the rest of the day off. Work can wait."

"No." She protested, "You should go in. I know how stressed you get when you get behind on paperwork or don't have enough time to prep for a trial."

"But-" He started to protest.

"I got a call from someone at the police station to come in and talk anyways. I'm guessing it has something to do the Arkham escape." She confessed.

"Are you sure?" He asked.

"Yeah, go ahead." She nodded.

"You'll be here when I get home, right?" His eyes narrowed slightly as he spoke, looking for any tell that she wasn't being truthful with him.

"My apartment is in pieces all over the 42nd street block –where else am I going to go?" Her attempt at humor lightening the situation failed and he gave her a look to show he didn't think it was very funny.

"I'll be here." She promised.

Accepting her answer, he leaned down and gave her another kiss before he turned to leave, on his way coming to a stop next to the trashcan. When he glanced back at her with an expectant expression, she shrugged, "I was really mad at you for changing the scented wax melts."

 **•••**

"You all know what we're dealing with here; six criminally insane inmates were busted out of Arkham Asylum. Yesterday, four of those inmates broke into Yellen Shipyard, kidnapped seven workers and then dropped them off the roof of the Gotham Gazette. As of now, we still have no leads on the person or persons behind the breakout. Jim Gordon is lead on this." Commissioner Essen announced to the squad room full of officers who were gathered to hear the latest details. Turning towards where Jim was standing she nodded, "Jim?"

Bird caught the tail end of Essen's speech as she walked into the precinct. After she'd heard what happened at Arkham, she'd known it was only a matter of time until she'd either have officers show up at her door, or she'd get a call to come down to the station.

Leaning against the wall, she crossed her arms over her chest and watched as Jim took center stage under a white screen set up across from a projector. With the remote in his hand he clicked a button to start the slide show and a picture of Jerome Valeska's mug shot took over the screen.

"These are our targets." Clearing his throat Jim began, "Jerome Valeska, 18 years old, matricide. Arnold Dobkins, schizophrenic, also a poisoner and rapist. Aaron Helzinger, killed his entire family with his bare hands. Robert Greenwood, killed and then ate a dozen women. Barbara Kean, killed her parents. We're gonna work this in groups of four. I'll hand out assignments throughout the day."

He eyed the crowd before asking, "Any questions?" When no one spoke up, he shut the projector off and ordered, "Let's get to work."

Essen spotted Bird off to the side of the room and approached her with a warm smile, "Miss Wayne."

Bird shook the hand the new commissioner had extended and corrected, "Bird."

With a nod, Essen said, "Sorry to take time out of you day, but thank you for coming in so fast."

Bird nodded, she hadn't dealt much with Essen before –but in her mind anyone would be a better commissioner than Loeb had been.

"Alvarez!" She called out to one of her detectives, motioning for him to come over to them before looking back to Bird and saying, "I'm going to have you go with Detective Alvarez and just answer a few questions, we mainly just need to know-"

"No." Bird cut her off, stubbornly shaking her head back and forth.

"I'm sorry?" Essen stammered.

"I'll only talk to Jim Gordon." Bird stressed, before blowing a sigh and causing the hair that had fell over her face to puff out as she added, "Or Bullock… if I absolutely have to."

"Bullock is no longer with us." She explained, holding up a hand as Alvarez started to towards them to signal she no longer needed him.

"He died?" Bird questioned and Essen's eyebrows raised at the clear lack of emotion in her voice, before she corrected, "He's no longer employed by the GCPD, but he's still alive."

Bird shook her head and mumbled under her breath how much things had changed during her time in Arkham.

"Jim is running point on the Arkham investigation, he's very busy-"

"Look." Bird sighed, "I'm not trying to be difficult here, but I did just spend months of my life locked away in Arkham because of a crime that I didn't commit. I not sure who's after me or what's going on, but considering my apartment building literally exploded this morning –I'm going to guess that it's not over. So either you bring Bullock back out of retirement or just let me talk to Jim."  
Pausing just long enough to make sure she was being heard and to pull in a breath, she finished, "Or I can just call my lawyer, who I'm pretty sure would advise against me being here in the first place-"

"Let me get you set up in one of the rooms and then I'll get Jim, okay?" Essen strained with a tight smile.

Bird nodded and followed her through the station, where she caught sight of Lee who gave her small smile in passing.

After getting put into one of the interrogation rooms and declining the offers for water or coffee, Bird sat staring straight ahead in silence until she heard door open back up and Jim walked in with Essen behind him.

"Hey." He greeted Bird with a nod, before stating, "Sorry to hear about your apartment building, but I'm glad you weren't there when it happened."

She nodded and watched as he sat down across the table, before Bird's eyes dated over to where Essen was starting to sit down with them.

Seeing the reaction Essen questioned, "Do you have a problem with my being here?"

"I don't know." Bird shrugged, "Did you frame me for a triple homicide?"

"No." She stated, her head titling to the side with the realization that it was an actual question and not a smartass remark.

"No." Jim backed her, looking to Bird as he vouched for his boss, "She's one of the good ones."

"Then she can stay." Bird accepted.

Once everyone was seated, Jim opened his mouth to explain why she'd been called and asked to come in, but Bird didn't give him a chance when she stated, "I had nothing to do with what happened at Arkham. Though, I admit… the timing does look bad considering I just got out of there myself."

"The timing of it does look bad." Jim admitted, his eyes narrowing slightly as he added, "Also doesn't help that the staff said you'd were friends with the inmates involved."

"Friends is a loose term." Bird pointed out, before pausing and openly admitting, "Cards on the table, you're wasting time talking to me. The only person I would have helped break out of Arkham would have been Barbara and we were close long before we both ended up in there."

Essen opened her mouth to ask a question of her own, but before she could Jim couldn't stop himself from reminding Bird, "I told you not to make friends while you were in there.

"So you did." The acknowledgment came with a roll of her brown eyes, "And so did Harvey and my lawyer-"

"Then why would you do it?" He pushed, "I spoke to the staff there myself and they said you sat with this same group of people every single day. That you spent rec time with them, ate your meals with them… do I really need to go on?"

Essen tried to break into the conversation again, but it soon became clear that she might as well have not been in the room when Bird's newly angered gaze fell on Jim and she said with gravel in her voice, "I had to."

"You had to?" Jim scoffed, "You say like that you didn't have a choice."

"Oh, I had a choice! Either fall in with them or…" Her voice trailed off and she leashed her anger. Clearing her throat, she paused for a moment before adding, "Some of the guards were scarier than the inmates, okay?"

"Meaning what?" Essen finally broke in.

Blowing out a sigh, Bird looked to Jim and asked, "Do you remember when you came there to see me after Barbara got her hands on a phone and started calling to threaten and taunt Lee?"

He nodded, "You said you didn't know how she got a phone." With a slight tilt of the head he admitted, "I didn't believe you."

"Good for you, because I was lying." She admitted, "Richard Sionis ran Arkham from in the inside out. If you got in good with him, he could get you anything within reason."

Bird looked down as she remembered, "I didn't always get along with him though. In the beginning I tried to stay away from everyone; just keep my head down and do my time until my lawyer could get me out of there. But Sionis and Jerome were always watching me, trying to court me into their group for whatever reason."

"And then something happened?" Jim asked, the tone of his voice much less gruff then before as he saw her absently mindedly twisting up the fabric on the sleeve of her shirt.

"Yeah, something happened. I realized Jerome was right." Bird's eyes locked with Jim's as she remembered, "My very first day in there, he told me I was going to have to make friends sooner or later and he was right."

"Care to elaborate on that more?" Essen asked her.

"Like I said, getting in good with Sionis could get you anything. Phones and other electronics, better food, a second blanket on freezing nights and even protection from handsy staff members who are quick to remind you that you're trapped in a place where no one really cares why you're screaming." Bird flatly stated, her voice entirely void of emotion and Jim didn't miss the vacant look in her eyes as she gave another shrug to further distance herself from the thoughts.

"Okay." Essen nodded, clearly understanding what Bird was getting at. Her own gaze softened when she added, "Look, for the record, I believe you. I don't think you had any involvement in orchestrating the breakout. But this doesn't look good. The timing is too coincidental, so if you know anything about this… anything at all, you've got to start talking, for your own sake."

"Exactly!" Bird exclaimed, looking to the commissioner, "The timing is too coincidental. Whoever did this is probably the same people that wiped out Bunderslaw's family and took him, probably the same ones who blew up my apartment building within ten minutes of me leaving there. Don't you see? Whoever is doing this –is trying to completely dismantle my life!"

"Conspiracy theories aren't going to help us find the missing inmates." Jim pointed out.

"I can't help either."

Essen nodded, she wasn't sure if Bird's reputation of being difficult to deal with was truly proceeding her or if she was holding something back. Either way, she didn't feel like her presence was helping matters much.  
Maybe she'd be more open if she was just dealing with Jim.

"I'm going to check and see if we've got any new leads." She announced as she stood from the table and looked to Jim, "Can you finish up here?"

He nodded and once she was out of the room, Bird stood up from the table and asked, "Are we done here?"

"Unless you're not telling me something." He countered, also standing as picked the folder up from the table he'd carried in.

"I'm being honest." Bird assured him. Adjusting her coat, she started for the door of the room but he caught up with her just outside of the interrogation room.

"What you said back there…" His voice lowered and he stepped closer and asked, "Did something happen to you in there?"

"No." She answered, "Nothing much beyond the threats."

"Bird, you can tell me-"

"I just did!" She exclaimed, "If it hadn't been for Sionis then it might have been a different story."

"Yeah?" He questioned, still speaking low, "And what did you have to do to _'get in good with Sionis'_ , as you put it?"

"Not what you're thinking." Her eyebrows arched as she added, "He prefers blondes. He really had a thing for Barbara."

When Jim's gaze remained unwavering on her and it was clear he was wanting more of an explanation.

"What do you want me to say, Jim?" Bird complained, "The man was locked in Arkham, he's nuts. During the time I was trying to be a good girl and not make friends, he and Jerome made some kind of bet with each other and got two of the inmates to try and jump me at dinner one night."

Swallowing hard she continued, "I lost it and nearly killed one them. After that I confronted Sionis and he kept going on about how true savages are easy to spot, but I surprised him. He said my violence was a thing of beauty. Even quoted Shakespeare or something about my being the serpent under the flower or something." Rubbing her forehead, she sighed, "I can't even remember, but after that he wanted me around him all the time and so to protect myself –I was."

"Sionis is the one last year who was forcing potential employers to fight for the open positions at his company, some of them fought to the death." Jim recalled, thinking to himself of how Sionis loved watching the dark side of humanity surface, to push people to cross lines they normally wouldn't.

"If you hear anything from any of the escapees, you'll call it in, right?" Jim asked.

Her dimples showed as she fought back a smile when questioning, "Do you want me to honestly answer that, or just nod as I walk away."

He shook his head as she started to take a few steps back away from him.

"I'm serious, Bird." He said loudly.

"One of those escapees happens to be a good friend of mine." She couldn't help but smile as she could practically see his stress levels starting to rise.

"She's dangerous." He reminded her.

"A lot of beautiful things are." Bird smirked, before turning and walking away without looking back at him.

Jim sighed and ran a hand through his hair.  
In the near countless visits he'd made to see her in the few months she'd spent in Arkham, he'd seen her vulnerable side more than ever before.  
Only now that she was back out, apparently she was starting to feel more like her old self.

The version that never failed to burrow underneath his skin long after she was out of sight.

As he headed off to find Commissioner Essen and touch base about the investigation, he didn't even notice Lee watching him from across the room. Her eyes fell down to the file in her hand that she'd been bringing to one of the officers.

Biting down on the side of her tongue, she wondered what he'd been talking so closely to Bird about.

She tried not to let it bother her, but for the last few months she'd had to listen to him bring her up several times a day not to mention she was sure he'd spent more evenings signing the visitors log at Arkham, then he'd spent with her at dinner.

She was used to him bringing his work home with him, the nights of being kept awake from his tossing and turning in the bed when he couldn't get one of his cases out of his head, but this felt different.

Blowing out a breath she tried to push the creeping thoughts out of her head and focus on work, mentally noting she'd bring some of it up that night at dinner.

 **•••** **Flashback •••**

Bird sat at a table by herself during dinner, her day had only gotten progressively worse since having to part ways with Harvey after his visit earlier that day.  
Someone apparently had decided that she needed some social time and the guard on duty wouldn't unlock the security gate leading to the women's wing so she could go back to her room.

Her dark brown eyes darted across the busy dining room with an almost paranoid level of alertness, the air in the room felt almost too thick to breath and even though no one had approached her, her skin felt prickly from a sense of impending danger.

She continued to scan her surroundings as she tore bits off of her dinner roll and popped them into her mouth.

Her gaze finally went to the table where Jerome was sitting and her eyes narrowed as she saw Richard Sionis speaking closely with a man seated next to him and Jerome kept glancing over at her, before excitedly turning his attention back to the conversation happening across the table from him.

Diverting her eyes away, Bird dropped the roll she'd been eating back to her tray and took a drink of water as she tried to slow her rapidly beating heart.

She'd have bet money that they must have been talking about her, but then again it seemed like with every passing day she was becoming more paranoid –and her being aware of her own lack of mental stability was only making things worse and she was losing sleep.

Taking another drink of her water, she kept her head slightly lowered, appearing to be staring down to her food but out of the corner of her eyes she was keeping tabs on the Sionis' table.

It wasn't much later that one of the men he'd been talking to stood up and starting to circle the room in a slow and predatory manner.

Turning her head towards the table, she saw Sionis was eating his dinner as if nothing were out of the ordinary –but Jerome had his elbow bent on the table and his chin resting in his hand as he stared at her with his green eyes looking brighter than usual.  
He was waiting on something to happen.

Bird fixated her gaze back on the man walking still circling the room, every pass he made behind where she was seated caused her pulse to jump as she prepared for a fight if someone tried to attack her. The only moments of calm she felt was when he was on the complete opposite side of the room and in clear view of her –but it was a false sense of security and staying solely focused on him quickly became her downfall when she didn't see the other inmate sneaking up behind her.

Suddenly a pair of alarmingly strong arms wrapped around her, pinning her arms down to her sides where she couldn't break free and in what felt like less than a second of time she was roughly jerked up from her seat and her legs dangled above the floor.

Despite feeling like she was having her very life squeezed out of her, her main concern returned to the man who'd been circling the room as he was now closing in on her. Not seeing a weapon on him, she waited until he got close enough to her that she could swing her lower body out and up, effectively wrapping her lets around his neck and clamping down as tight as she could.

Tiling her head forward, she brought it back as fast and as hard as she could and the back of her head collided with the man's face, catching him completely off guard and with a groan of pain he stumbled backwards and she fell to the ground, bringing her other attacker down with her. Scrambling to her feet, she delivered a powerful kick to the front of his throat that left him defenseless and using all of his strength to try and take a breath, but his state of panic just made the task more impossible.

Hearing movement from behind her, she wasted no time grabbing up her dinner tray and hitting the man on the side of his head; bringing him to the ground with one powerful blow.  
In a frenzied fit of rage, the rest of the room melted away into nothingness and she was on top of the man she'd brought down, taking everything out on him with her bare fists. One powerful hit after another came so fast that he hadn't had time to block any of the punches she was throwing, each one of them landing on his face and head with a dizzying force.

Her knuckles hurt, ached more and more with each impact they made on his flesh and bone, but the pain didn't stop her. In some sick way it only fueled the frenzy.

Her target wasn't moving any longer, to be honest she wasn't even entirely sure he was still alive –but she couldn't bring herself to stop pummeling him.

Drops of warm blood spattered up onto her face and soaked into her black and white striped dress, the skin over her knuckles was broken and she, herself, was bleeding.

Something thick and cold landed on the side of her face and startled her from the moment, breaking her rage filled concentration just enough to see the damage she'd done. Scrambling up to her feet, she reached for the side of her face to see what had landed on her –as she pulled her hand away she saw it was a glob of mashed potatoes.

It wasn't until then that she realized the entire dining room had broken out into a food fight, ignited by the food that had flew off of her own tray when she'd used it as a weapon.

The room was a scene of complete chaos with cheap, tasteless food being blindly hurled in all directions. Jerome was standing on top of one of the tables, laughing manically as he threw whatever food he could get his hands on. Each time he was pelted by something, his laughing grew louder and louder until it finally became the only thing that Bird could hear.

The noise bounced around inside of her head, physically colliding with one side of her skull and then the other –but never fully leaving.

Her breath rushed in and out of her lungs, no longer aware of the still ongoing food fight around her that was starting to turn violent as the inmates ran out of food to throw and started tossing around anything they could find –from their food trays, to books and even chairs.

Bird felt like all of the oxygen was being pulled from the room and forced from her lungs, the longer she stood there, the more it felt like any ounce of hope she'd ever had that she was going to make it out of those walls was slipping away.

Her legs gave out from under her and she landed painfully hard on her knees, before she crawled under the table she'd been sitting at and pulled her knees up to her chest. Closing her eyes she tried to find some ounce of peace within herself, but her entire world had spun into complete chaos and she was steadily losing her ability to see a way out.

As impossible as it seemed, somehow the sound of Jerome Valeska's laughing seemed to be growing louder and she opened her eyes to see he was knelt down next to the guy she'd beaten to a bloody pulp. Feeling eyes on him, he looked over to see Bird crouched underneath the table. Their eyes locked and he swooped something up from the floor, before he crawled under the table with her and held out his hand with his fist closed around whatever it was he'd picked up.

When she stared blankly at him, he reached out and grabbed her hand, holding it palm up as he dropped what he'd been holding into her hand.

Bird looked down to see he'd placed a blood stained human tooth in her hand, one of several she'd knocked out of her attacker's mouth.

Her brown eyes widened and she dropped the tooth to the floor and in response Jerome's laughing was reignited. His entire face changed, his cheeks turning into sharp points with his mouth so far open she had a clear view of his tonsils and the laugh that she once had found amusing was starting to invade her thoughts and take root in her head, haunting her in a way she didn't understand; but desperately needed to stop.

After what felt like an eternity, someone grabbed onto the back of his shirt and jerked him out from under the table. Followed by another hand taking a tight grip on her arm and also pulling her out from the shelter the table had provided.

The room was nearly empty of inmates now, the ones who remained were being pulled towards their rooms by the staff and she saw they were loading the two men she'd brought down onto gurneys to be taken to either Gotham General or the infirmary.

"Well look who it is." The orderly who had a tight grip on her arm said, and she turned her head to see a familiar face of someone she'd went to school with. Looking her over he smirked, "How the mighty have fallen, huh?"

"Jackson?" She asked, using her unrestrained arm to push her food coated hair from her eyes.

"Surprised you remember my name." He flatly stated, as he started to drag her towards the women's wing to lock her in her room for the night. "I remember when you thought you were too good to even speak to me."

Bird didn't say anything back, all the fight she'd had in her system was long gone and it was nothing short of humiliating having someone she'd graduated high school with working at the very place she was being held prisoner in.

"Come on. In you go." He said as they reached her room, and he pushed her inside with his hand moving down her lower back and onto her butt.

Quickly moving away from him, she spun around with hate narrowed eyes and hissed, "Don't touch me."

Taking a few steps into her room, his eyes darkened as he said, "Right… you're a Wayne. You think you're untouchable –always have."

"Well, guess what?" Jackson questioned, closing in on her as he reached a hand out and poked her shoulder as he called out in a menacing tone, "Touch…"

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Bird warned, her voice low as she spoke and stared at him from under her eyebrows.

"Out of these walls you might have thought you were something special, but in here you're just another freak –an insane freak and I'm the one calling the shots." He threatened, before teasing in a childlike tone, "Looney Bird."

Turning he stepped outside of her room and she moved forward in a manner that was easily perceived as hostile and he looked down to his keys as he warned, "Bad things happen to our inmate population all the time, especially on the female wing. I'd really hate to see anything like that happen to you."

Sliding the door shut, he locked it before leaning in close to the small metal barred opening and giving an almost malicious smile as he said, "But don't worry, I've got a key to your room… I could come by and keep an eye on you. You know, in the middle of the night when it's cold and dark and all the nurses stay in the main office to watch T.V –the time of night where no one pays attention to the lunatics screaming."

Despite her stone exterior, he could see the color drain from her face and with a satisfied look on his face he said, "Sleep tight, Looney Bird."

Once he was gone, Bird backed across her small room until the back of her legs hit the metal railing of the bed and she dropped back onto the thin mattress, kicking her shoes off and scooted back until her back was against the wall.

There had been moments since she'd been locked up in Arkham that she'd considered maybe this was punishment for the bad things she'd done in her life. Even though she'd tried to change and live better; that didn't erase the terrible things she'd done and at times in the middle of the night while she'd lie awake in bed she'd try to make sense of what was happening and in those moments it seemed plausible that maybe this was a result of everything catching up with her.

But as she sat there now; in her blood stained clothes with mashed potatoes and vegetable soup in her hair, along with Jackson's threats playing over in her head –she was sure that she didn't deserve what was happening to her.

Her gaze fell to where there was a stack of magazines and some books on the bed beside her and she realized they must have been the ones Harvey was talking to her about when he'd came to visit her earlier that day.

Scooting them around, she stopped about a third of the way through the stack when she came across a bridal magazine and she somehow found just enough strength to manage a small smile, knowing that this was his way of trying to get her to keep hope for the future. To get through the present and to the point where they could actually start their lives together and Arkham Asylum would just be a painful memory –a bad dream.

 **•••**

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 **A/N – I hope you all liked the second chapter! Bird has certainly gone through an ordeal during her months in Arkham :/.**

 **I want to thank Shadow knight1121, Amelia, The Plague Doctor, NolaLynne91, kvsiv, SusieSamurai, RestingDove, Guest, Melody Jane, Natalie, Katnis789, Miss E Charlotte and Guest for their reviews!  
Guys I am so happy to have a positive response to the story so far and I cannot wait to get more of this story posted!**

 **Also, for anyone who might be wondering, it's looking like Oswald will be back around chapters 4/5! ^_^**


	3. Wicked Beauty

**III**

 _"There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature." ― Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey_

* * *

 **••• flashback •••**

"I was beginning to think you forgot about me." Bird admitted as she took a seat across the table from her littel brother in one of the visting rooms.

"No." Bruce answered, "I've just been busy… and not entirely sure what I'd say when I got here."

"How are you?" She asked, looking him over as she commented, "You're looking too thin."

"I've gotten taller." He excused, his eyes dropping to the table as he spoke.

He wasn't there for a social visit, he'd came there on business and he had a feeling her eagerness to see him would quickly fade when she learned why he was there.

"Starling…" He breathed, clearing his throat. "It's nice to see you, but the truth is… I'm not really here to catch up."

"What's going on?" She asked, looking her little brother over before asking, "Is everything okay?"

"I'm here because…" Taking a deep breath; he found the strength to continue, "I'm here because… I think it would be best for everyone if you signed over your shares in Wayne Enterprises."

"What?" She scoffed, her eyes wide as she stared at him in shock.

"Signed them over to who? To you?" Her teeth gritted in a sudden bout of anger and she hissed, "Right now, little brother, I'd sooner sign them over to a stranger!"

"It's not that I want to take your shares." He defended, his eyes full of sadness as he continued, "This is about trying to keep control within the family. Together we own fifty-one percent of the company and with you being in here –with the crimes you committed-"

"You think I'm guilty?" Fire burned behind Bird's eyes and she couldn't remember there ever being a time when she was more upset with him in her entire life. "I've done some bad stuff, but I'm telling you I did not kill those people."

"I want to believe you." He said in a sincere tone, "I did believe you, but I've looked over the files myself –saw the amount of evidence against you and for now, at least, I just think it would be better to sign your shares of the company over before someone else manages to get their hands on them. You know how corrupt the company is and I can't keep fighting against it if I don't own the majority."

The look on her face sent a pain through his chest.  
He didn't want to hurt her; she was already going through enough, but the more time that passed with her inside Arkham walls the longer the company had to make a move against her and he couldn't let that power fall into the wrong hands.

"Wow…" She breathed, rubbing her hands over her face and blowing out an exasperated breath.

"What?" He questioned, their eyes meeting as he spoke.

"I'm just trying to figure out exactly when you turned into the kind of person who likes to kick someone when they're already down." Bird admitted, shaking her head in disbelief as she spoke.

Her downfall had happened so fast that her head was still spinning, the same city that had held her family's name up on a pedestal with loving hands and her fellow citizens who'd mourned her parent's loss with her, had turned against her when word of her crimes had hit the streets.

It wasn't a nice feeling, knowing countless people in her community wanted her to spend her life behind bars –or even worse and pay the ultimate price for the charges against her.  
It wasn't a good feeling, but even so it was something she could handle. But not this, not her brother turning against her.

Feeling like her own family; her brother whom she'd do anything to protect and keep safe, was turning on her felt like nothing short of jagged blade plunged into her heart.

It was a betrayal.

"That's not my intention." Bruce quickly said, but didn't get a chance to say much else before his older sister cut him off as she harshly questioned, "You intend to take away my claim in Wayne Enterprises while I'm locked up in these walls for something that I didn't do. How am I supposed to feel about it, Bruce?"

He opened his mouth to speak, but she caught him off guard as she hissed, "What's next? Try and strip me of the Wayne name since I was adopted?"

"No! Starling I-"

"Because you couldn't even if you tried!" She yelled over him when he attempted to argue with her. "I am a Wayne –by blood and I have just as much right to the family company as you do."

"What are you talking about?" He asked, his voice quieter and a look of confusion on his face.

"Lilith Wayne." Bird stated, arching an eyebrow as she continued, "Kind of the black sheep of the family and apparently my birth mother –go figure, right?"

"I've never heard of her." He admitted, and she could tell by the look on his face that he was skeptical of what she was saying.

"Neither had I, until recently that is." She conceded, "But it's the truth and seeing as how you like the play detective nowadays –you should start with Harvey. I've got a letter at home from dad, telling me the truth about it and if you ask, Harvey will give it to you."

Bruce stared back at her with an almost blank expression. He wanted to believe she was making the entire thing up to shake him.  
Wanted to believe that his father wouldn't have kept something like that from them, but it seemed with each passing day came a new revelation about Thomas Wayne.

It seemed the strangest thing in the world to still be learning about someone's life long after they were gone. Most took their secrets to the grave with them, but it seemed as though his father had left all his behind.

The siblings looked over to the door when an orderly let them know that their visit needed to be wrapped up –she was only allowed a certain amount of time per vistor.

"I will look into what you've told me." Bruce said as he got to his feet, and watched his sister stand up and smooth out her Arkham inmate uniform.

Bird nodded and turned to head towards the door, but stopped abrupty when Bruce called after her. "Even if you're telling the truth, it doesn't change anything. This isn't personal and I'm not doing this to hurt you –but you know I will stop at nothing to clean up Wayne Enterprises. I've already procured a lawyer who assures me there is no way we would lose the case against you."

Slowly, she turned back around and stared at him with her mouth hanging slightly open.

"I'm sorry." He said in a voice barely over a whisper and a weak shrug to match.

"As am I little brother." She countered, turning back around to leave the room as she repeated, "As am I."

Once she was back in the main room for the inmates on her floor, Bird set her sights on the table where Richard Sionis was sitting.

Pulling in a deep breath she crossed the room and sat down across from him. He glanced at her from over the top of the book he was reading, feeling like he was having Deja Vue from over a week ago when she'd so brazenly chosen to sit with him at breakfast only to let him know how much she didn't appreciate his messing with her and having men provoke a fight with her just to see how much of a fighter she truly was.

"Bird." He greeted, his eyes going back to the words on the page.

Offering a smile she greeted, "Mr. Sionis… I think we may have gotten off on the wrong foot last week."

"Is that so?" He asked, amusement heavy in his tone as his eyes didn't leave the book.

"To survive inside of this place, we need friends."

With a sigh, he closed the book and laid down on the table with a thud as he realized, "You want something."

When she didn't say anything he motioned with his hand as he asked, "What is it?"

"I need to get a message to someone on the outside… I need a favor from an old friend." Bird admitted, keeping the smile on her lips as she spoke.

"You have visitors nearly every day-"

"No." She argued, shaking her head back and forth, "This person can't exactly just walk in here during visiting hours and… well, frankly I don't want anyone knowing about this."

"I'm intrigued." He conceded. Removing his glasses and laying them on the book he'd been reading. "Leave us." He instructed the other inmates at the table, who as usual, followed his every command and immediately got up and scattered in different directions.

"Who is it you're wanting to get a message to?" Sionis asked once they were alone.

"Victor Zsasz." Bird answered.

"The assassin?" Sionis asked with a laugh, his eyes narrowing slightly at her as he questioned, "You're not plotting an escape are you?"

With a chuckle of her own Bird answered, "No, of course not. I will get out of here one day, but when that day comes I'm walking out of here a free person." Crossing her arms on the table in front of her she continued, "I have a life on the outside that I'm planning to pick up where I left off, and I can't do that if I'm having to live life on the lam. As I said… he's an old friend."

"One that you said you're looking to ask a favor of." He recalled, "And what favor might that be?"

"You know what he does-"

"Yes, but I want to hear you say it." He answered in a low tone, leaning partially over the table as he spoke.

Pulling in a deep breath Bird paused for a moment before she finally answered, "I have a problem that I need taken care of."

"That problem being a person?" Sionis pushed.

"Yes." Bird said through her gritted teeth.

"Was it not just a week ago you sat in that very seat preaching to me about how you don't kill people, that underneath it all you're not a savage?" Not giving her time to speak he continued, "What happened to that Bird?"

"I'm still that Bird." She defended, clearing her throat and sounding more like she was trying to convince herself of that. "All I'm asking is for your help to get a message to a friend. Will you help me or not?"

"I'll help you." He nodded, "Seeing as how we're friends now, I expect to see you at my table for meals and just spending more time out in here in general. I like to surround myself with like-minded people, strong people with the spirits of fighters –warriors."

"Okay." Bird agreed, nodding in thanks before she stood up and started to walk away.

"You should clean yourself up." He called after her, as he picked his book back up and resumed his reading. "At least brush your hair."

Bird came to a stop and pulled in a breath between her teeth, before slowly exhaling as she nodded in agreement without turning back around to face him.

 **••• end of flashback •••**

A smile spread over Bird's face as she paid for the fresh cinnamon sugared twist doughnut and piping hot coffee. Sometimes it still felt strange to just be able to eat whatever she wanted –whenever she wanted.

Just as she sat down at small table in the corner of the bakery, her phone started to ring.

Pulling it from her jacket pocket, she stared at the number on the small front screen wondering who could be calling her.

Deciding to ignore the number, she laid her phone down on the table and picked up the doughnut , but just as she was about to take a bite, her phone started to ring again.

Seeing it was the same number as just moments before, Bird blew out a sigh and dropped the pastry back on her plate.

Flipping the phone open, she answered, "Hello?"

"Hey, best friend!"

"Hey, B." Bird greeted upon hearing Barbara's voice, "How's the new found freedom going?"

"Fabulous." Barbara said before her voice broke off into a laugh she asked, "Guess what?"

Grimacing as she burnt her tongue on the coffee, Bird hummed, "Hmm, it's far too early in the morning to play a guessing game."

"You're no fun." Barbara pouted, before saying, "I don't have long, I just wanted to call and tell you I missed you and…"

Bird's eyes darted back and forth as she waited for her to go on.

Finally Barbara said, "I saw the news footage of when you were released from Arkham. How sweet was it that Jim came to get you?"

Bird sat her cup of coffee down on the table and said, "I didn't really have anyone else to call-"

"Don't worry, B. I'm not mad." Barbara assured her with another laugh before she said, "I just think it's so nice that he was there for you when you needed someone and I thought you might want to return the favor."

"What are you-" Bird started to ask with an uneasy feeling rising in her stomach.

"Where are you?" Barbara cut her off.

"A bakery."

"Which one?"

"What is going on?" Bird sighed.

"Oh, nothing really… I was just wondering if you'd get to the police station in time." Barbara replied, sounding awfully happy.

"In time for what?"

"Nice chat, B. " Barbara breathed into the phone, before the line went silent.

Pulling the phone away from her ear, Bird dialed Jim's number but he didn't pick up.

"Damn it." She muttered under her breath as she looked down to the doughnut she'd been looking forward to ever since she'd woke up that morning; the one she no longer had time to eat.

 **•••**

By the time Bird made it to the police station it was a scene of complete and utter chaos. Smoke grenades that had gone off made it nearly impossible to see. Men dressed as uniformed officers had opened fire in the main room with guns.

There were injured and dying men and women littering the floor, blood sprayed across desks and open files from where the detectives had been caught completely off guard.

Ducking down she moved as fast as possible while trying to remain alert and see if she could spot Jim among the chaos. Spotting one of the men holding an assault rifle, Bird ducked down behind a desk and tried to stay out of sight.

"Miss Wayne?"

Looking over she saw Nygma also bunkered down under the desk across from the one she was using, he was shielding a pretty red haired woman wearing glasses with his own body. Doing everything he could to keep her safe from the attack launched on the station.

"Ed." She whispered, "Where's Jim?"

"I-I don't know." He stammered.

Peeking out from under his arm, the woman asked, "How many gunmen are there?"

"I don't know." She admitted, eyeing her before she questioned, "Who are you?"

"I'm Kristen." She introduced herself at the same time Ed answered, "This is Miss Kringle."

"Ooh…" Bird breathed, realizing this was the woman Ed had killed Officer Dougherty over.

Another round of gunfire broke up from the level above them and Bird could hear the unmistakable laugh of Jerome Valeska echoing throughout the building.

As Nygma tried to readjust, he accidentally hit his head on the desk and the sound seemed to fill up every silent space around them.

"Oh my god…" Kristen whined, realizing their hiding spot had been blown as Nygma silently clutched onto his head with a pained expression.

"We have to get out of here!" Kristen said much louder than she meant to.

"Don't move." Bird instructed, with her hearing focused on the sound of approaching footsteps.

"We can't just-" Kristen tried to argue, but Bird shushed her and warned, "Don't move."

The trio sat in silence, listening to the footsteps grow closer. Bird scooted back under the desk more to stay completely out of sight and kept her breathing calm and line of sight focused on the floor.

Waiting until just the right moment, she swung her leg out, tripping the gunman and bringing him down to the floor with a hard thud. Without wasting a single second she scrambled out from under the desk and kicked the gunman in the side of the head with such force that when he stopped moving she wasn't sure if he was dead or just knocked out –and she didn't care.

Picking up the handgun he'd been carrying, Bird started to continue on her path and search to find Jim but stopped when she realized she was no longer on her journey alone.

Looking over her shoulder she saw with Nygma and Miss Kringle were following her.

"What are you doing?" She hissed at them.

"Following you." Kristen whisper-yelled back at her and Ed nodded in agreement, knowing sticking by Bird was going to be their safest bet on making it out of there alive.

"Why?" Bird demanded to know, but when neither of them answered it slowly started to dawn on her that they were looking to her for guidance in a life and death situation.  
That for whatever reason they were now depending on her for their own wellbeing and her eyes widened –this wasn't something she was used to.

"Keep low and stay behind me." She sighed, rubbing her forehead with her free hand.

Once they turned down a hallway where several offices were located, Bird opened her mouth to tell them that they would probably be better off picking a room and locking the door behind them, but as she started to, Nygma said, "Shh! Do you hear that?"

Pulling in a breath, Bird slowly exhaled and as she did she heard a muffled scream coming from the medical examiners office.

Slowly closing in on the door she turned the handle and pushed it open to see that a man had Lee pinned against the wall with a hand around her throat and the other over her mouth as she fought to break free –but he was much too strong.

"Oh my god, Lee!" Kristen gasped, tears burning her eyes as she got a look past Bird at what was happening in the room.

The man spun around and Bird didn't waste any time bringing him down with a single shot to the head.

Lee slid down the wall onto the floor, holding on her throat, making choking noises and gasping to catch her breath as she stared up at Bird with wide eyes.

"I…" Lee choked out, "I heard gunshots and I tried to hide but that man came in here…" Her voice trailed off as she looked over to the dead body on the floor and then back to Bird as Nygma and Miss Kringle filed into the room.

"What the hell is going on out there?" Lee asked them, "Where's Jim?"

"I don't know." Bird said, "But I'm going to find him."

"You can't go out there. It's too dangerous." Lee argued with Bird as Nygma helped her up to her feet.

"What are we supposed to do?" Kristen questioned.

The confused look on Bird's face grew as she looked around, still not fully able to comprehend why anyone would be looking to her for leadership.

After all, she'd throw just about anyone under the bus to save herself.  
Looking down she realized so far she'd possibly saved three lives, even when it would have simpler to just leave them and go on about her goal.

Maybe she really had changed in some ways more than she thought.

"Okay." Bird said, closing her eyes and formulating a plan. Looking back to the group, she nodded to the far wall and said, "You're going to lock the door behind me, and then stay against that wall over there. Stay away from the window on the door and hopefully if anyone looks in –they won't see you."

Looking between the three of them, Bird popped the clip out of the gun to see how many bullets were left. "You've got five rounds, so make them count."

With that she decided Lee seemed the most capable, and handed her the gun before repeating, "Lock the door behind me."

Once she was out of the office and heard the lock in the door click behind her, Bird looked down to her empty hands and shot a glance back at the door. She'd really left the weapon with them instead of taking it for own protection.  
Not that she needed a gun to defend herself, but she wasn't usually the type to take away from herself to give to others.

Pushing the thoughts out of her head, she crept back through the police station. She spotted Jerome dressed in a GCPD police uniform and he had someone tied to a chair, through the hazy smoke still lingering –Bird thought it looked like Commissioner Essen, but she couldn't be sure.

Coming to a stop on the sidewalk she looked around for any sign of Jim or even a trace of Barbara. She didn't know what exactly was happening, but Jim wasn't inside the station.

Knowing there were more alleyways and empty buildings to the right of the station, she decided that was probably her best option at finding either of them.

She'd walked nearly a block away when an idea hit her and she was sure if it hadn't been from all the stress of people expecting her to protect them back at the precinct; the lightbulb would have went off much sooner.

Coming to a stop, she pulled her phone from her pocket and redialed the number that Barbara had called her from earlier.

She raised her head and looked around as she could just faintly hear the sound of a phone ringing nearby. She followed the sound until she found Barbara standing in an alley watching as Arkham escapee, Aaron Helzinger, had a severely beaten and bloody Jim Gordon pinned to the ground –delivering one powerful blow after another to the wounded detective's face.

"Aaron!" Barbara yelled when she spotted Bird, "That's enough."

Standing up he nodded and took a few steps backwards.

Bird's eyes fell to where part of a metal pipe lay on the ground not far away from where Jim was lying defenseless. She didn't know what the plan was now, for a moment she wondered if Barbara would actually command Aaron to attack her.

Her eyes dropped back to the pipe, knowing that physically she was nowhere near a match to go against Aaron Helzinger.  
He was more beast than man and towered over her.  
She'd once seen another inmate at Arkham dent their metal lunch tray on his head and he barely even flinched.

But his height and muscle mass slowed him down. He might have been bigger and stronger, but she was faster and he'd tire out in a fight long before she would.

"Relax, B. And stop eyeing that pipe, you don't need it." Barbara smiled widely, "You're my best friend. You really think I'd sic Aaron on you?"

"Honestly, I'm not sure what to think right now." Bird admitted. Eyeing where Jim was still lying on the ground, breathing roughly and moving around in pain. "Aside from the fact that he probably needs a doctor."

"Good thing he's dating one then." Barbara loudly called out, before dramatically cupping her hand her mouth to hold back a laugh.

As Barbara started to descend on where Jim was lying, Bird protectively moved forward but she didn't get far as Aaron blocked her path.

Kneeling down on top of Jim, Barbara shook him until he made a pained groan and his eyes fluttered open trying to focus as she leaned over him, "I'm not sick." Barbara stated, "I'm free… you don't get that. I could explain it but you should probably get back to work, who knows what went wrong while you were gone!"

"Plus…" She breathed, looking over her shoulder to where Bird was keeping a close eye on her, Barbara added, "Bird's got that rabid look in her eyes again and that's my cue to get out of here."

Grabbing a handful of Jim's hair and lifting his head up off the ground, Barbara leaned to the side so he could see where Bird was standing as she theatrically gasped, "She's scary when she's mad, isn't she?"

Seeming to grow bored from the entire ordeal, Barbara let go of his hair and let his head fall back and roughly hit the hard cement before she leaned down and planted a kiss on his cheek, coming back with his blood on her lips she smiled wickedly at him before standing up and walking towards Bird.

"Looks like you showed up a few minutes too late to help him." Barbara taunted as she faced her friend.

Knowing that a big reaction was more than likely what she was playing to get, Bird shrugged as she commented, "I don't know. Looks like he's still going to need some help getting out of here."

Throwing her head back and letting out a laugh, Barbara complimented, "If I didn't know you so well, I'd totally buy into that 'couldn't care less attitude'. You're so funny."

Leaning in she pressed a kiss to Bird's cheek, leaving behind a near perfect lip print shaped stain in Jim's blood before she walked away calling over her shoulder, "Bye, B. Love you!" While Bird stood in place; fists balled up at her sides and her jaw clenched in anger.

Bird's head slightly turned to the side she made sure Barbara and Aaron were out of sight before she rushed over to where Jim was still lying.

Sliding down to her knees, her eyes darted back and forth over his bruised and swollen face –covered in thick trails of blood. His suit was torn and dirty, holding its fair share of blood in the threading from where Aaron had literally picked him up and threw him against the side of the brick building.

His eyelids were still fluttering and he was having a hard time understanding what was going on around him with the loud ringing sounds coming from deep within his ears.

"Jim!" Bird yelled, her voice hoarse as she tapped on the side of his cheek and tried to get him to look at her. Pulling her hand back she looked down at the blood on her hand and swallowed hard, "Jim!"

She wasn't sure what he was trying to say when he opened his mouth, but all that came out was a pained groan.

"You have to get up." Bird stated, biting down on the side of her tongue as she watched his eyes trying to flutter open again. Pulling the sleeve of her jacket down over her hand she wiped the blood away from his eyes so he could see better, before taking his head in her hands and leaning down closer to his face.

"Can you hear me?" She asked.

"Yeah…" He groaned as the his ringing ears finally started to settle.

"Something happened at the police station." She admitted.

"What… what are you…what?" He croaked, still fighting to keep his eyes open and breathe heavily through the pain seeming to radiate from all over his entire body.

"Jim!" She loudly complained, shaking her head back and forth.  
She knew he'd taken one hell of a beating, but she was sure at some point she'd probably been through worse and managed to still be aware of what was happening around her.

"Something happened at the station, okay? I think Jerome has Commissioner Essen and a lot of people are dead and for all we know Barbara isn't done have you tortured, so you have to get up. We can't just stay here waiting for her and Aaron –or someone else to come back." Allowing time for him to absorb the information, Bird questioned, "You understand?"

"Got it." Jim answered as he struggled to get sat up and then with Bird's help was able to get up to his feet.

"Whoa, hey… easy." Bird stammered out, as Jim nearly stumbled right back over within seconds of gaining his footing, and she rushed closer to keep him up.

He closed his eyes and waited for it the feeling of the world tilting and spinning around him to slow, before he nodded to where his service weapon was laying on the ground where it had fell during the struggle. Understanding, Bird picked the gun up and handed it to him.  
Together, they started back towards the direction of the station with Bird at his side, keeping a close eye on him in case he either started to fall again or passed out.

Once they got inside the doors, Jim came to a staggering stop when he saw the carnage on display in front of him. The entire stumbling walk there, he'd been preparing himself for possibly walking into a warzone. He was ready to fight and defend his brothers and sisters in arms –but he was too late to do anyone any good.

There were bodies all over the floor in puddles of blood, some detectives lying dead over their desks. Blood spatter had painted the room red and the only sound was cries and agonized noises from the severely wounded.

"What do we do?" Bird quietly asked, looking over to Jim before commenting, "Not like calling 911 will do us any good…"

Jim turned his head and shot her a look, but Bird shrugged as she pointed out, "I'm not trying to be funny." Looking him over she said, "I think you should sit down."

Hearing the sounds footsteps, Bird looked over to see Lee kneel down next to one of the fallen officers and feel for a pulse.

"Lee?" Jim called out to her.

"Jim!" She yelled, turning around and rushing over to where he and Bird were standing.

"Are you hurt?" He questioned.

"No. I'm –I'm okay." She assured him, looking over at Bird and thinking to herself that if she hadn't shown up when she did, things could have gone a whole different route.

"Where were you?" Lee asked him.

"Barbara was here… she lured me away." Jim explained.

Seeing how he was swaying as he tried to stand still, Lee said, "Jim, you need to sit down."

"That's what I told him." Bird commented.

"No." Jim argued with them, holstering his gun before he brushed past Lee and called out, "Essen?"  
Seeing a few of the officers who'd survived the attack, gathered up on the platform he moved towards them as fast as he could.

Both Bird and Lee followed him up onto the platform where Sarah Essen was bleeding out on top of one of the desks, her once white blouse now a deep crimson.

Stepping up to the table, Lee felt for a pulse on the commissioner's neck –but it was weak and quickly fading. Each gasping breath she pulled in had a deaths rattle deep within her chest and Lee turned to face him as she silently shook her head back and forth.  
She wasn't going to make it.

Kneeling down to her, Jim pleaded, "Hang on. Boss? Boss, stay with me… breathe."

"It's a new day, Jim…" She strained out the same words she'd said to him after being named commissioner and giving Jim his badge back, her lips weakly curving up into a smile just before she took her last breath and the last signs of life left her body.

Closing his eyes, Jim hung his head. Sarah Essen had been one of the good ones since he'd first started at the GCPD well over a year before.  
Even though she'd only been gone for a very short time, the city already felt like a darker place.

 **•••**

Bird stepped over a puddle of blood on the floor and looked around the busy precinct. Emergency crews had responded to the distress call, along with police still arriving from nearby cities.

The dead and severely wounded had already been moved, while EMT's were tending to the more mild cases there in the station.

A small smile toyed at the corner of her lips as she saw Nygma sitting up on one of the desks getting his arm bandaged up, while a concerned Miss Kringle hovered over him with some aspirin in her hand and a cup of water for him.

Good for him, she thought to herself, good for him. The night he'd killed Officer Dougherty, from what Ed had told her; it sounded like he was in love with her, but the love was unrequited.

Kristen smiled at Ed again, knowing that if he hadn't rushed to her aid and knocked her down, using his own body to shield and protect her –then she had no doubt she'd have been killed –or at the very least injured.  
When the station first came under attack, she'd froze up in place. Bullets were flying all the room, ricocheting off of hard surfaces and she couldn't do anything but stand there.  
She hadn't even a clue that Nygma had that much bravery in him –that he'd risk his life to save her.

As Bird passed behind them, Kristen looked at her and smiled before giving Bird's arm a small squeeze and a nod of thanks. She was alive, breathing and well because Bird had fearlessly taken down the man who was coming along to pick off survivors and then led them to safety. It was a sad day in Gotham, but even in the tragedy she found a few things; a few people to be thankful for.

"Bird." Turning around she saw Jim coming towards her.

"Hey." She breathed, "I think I'm going to go-"

"You saved lives today." He stated, cutting her off.

"Please." Bird cracked a smile as she spoke, "I don't think Barbara was going to let Aaron kill you, she just wanted you to suffer-"

"I'm not talking about me." He pointed out, stepping closer, "Lee told me how you led Nygma and Kristen Kringle to safety –how you even saved her."

"Yeah, well, don't go naming me a saint just yet. I mainly helped because Ed is a friend." Pausing to take a breath, she added, "And I've been known to do some pretty stupid things for the sake of my friends."

"Don't downplay it." Jim argued with her.

"Whatever." Bird excused, waving a hand through the air, "It's not a big deal-"

"Thank you." He loudly said over her protests, before repeating "You saved people today."

Looking around at the remnants of the attack on the station, Jim turned back to Bird and asked, "What were you even doing here?"

"Trying to find you." She admitted, tucking her hair behind her ears before carefully admitting, "Barbara called me this morning. She said she saw the news footage of when I was let out of Arkham and how sweet it was for you to be there to help me. Then… she said she thought I might like to return the favor and help you in your hour of need and so here I am."

"Gordon!" One of the surviving officers called out and motioned for him to come over.

"Do me a favor and hang around here a while longer,okay? I want to know every word she said to you on the phone and get someone to run a trace on the number." Jim said, before turning to walk away.

"It's pointless, you know!" She called after him, "Barbara's not stupid. Probably just a burner phone she's already ditched somewhere." With that she blew out a sigh and wandered back over to where Nygma and Miss Kringle were at.

Jim had just finished signing a few papers and speaking with some of the emergency responders, wanting to know when they'd have an exact tally of how many were lost or killed during the attack, when he heard Bruce's frantic voice call out, "Detective Gordon!"

Turning around he saw the teenager rushing towards him with Alfred jus mere steps behind. He gave a nod to the ones he'd been talking to, letting them know they'd finish up later, so he could give Bruce his attention for the moment.

"I… I saw the news. I was worried something happened to you." Bruce admitted, his eyes taking in the sigh of the badly beaten and bloodied detective as he softly added, "I'm very relieved."

"Me too." Jim said, his expression not giving much away.

The last time he'd spoke to the youngest Wayne sibling had been a while ago. Just days after he'd been fired from the GCPD entirely, he'd went to Wayne Manor to do the standup thing and deliver the news in person to Bruce that he wasn't going to be able to keep the promise he'd made about not giving up on finding out who killed his parents and apologize for that fact.

The conversation had taken a turn and he'd been entirely honest when questioned about hope for reinstatement of his badge, he admitted that his only chance at getting his job back would be to collect a debt for Oswald Cobbelpot.

He'd expected understanding from Bruce at the very least on why doing a demeaning task like that could turn ugly and might not be worth the payout. But to his surprise, Bruce had lectured him on how he'd spoke of finding his parents' murderer, making the city safer and cleaning up the department.  
All the good things he'd hoped to do, but wouldn't be able to now that he'd lost his job.

Even went so far as to accuse him of sacrificing the greater good for his own sense of dignity and self-esteem. A fact that caught him entirely off guard, especially since he'd spoke to Bird in Arkham just the day before and she'd warned him against going through with it.

 _'Surely sometimes the right, is also the ugly way'_ –is what Bruce had told him. Words that played over in his head as was on his way to collect the debt, which had resulted in his having to kill the man he was going to see.

It certainly came a cost, but he'd gotten his job back. Collected the debt and Oswald had followed through on his end of the promise and forced Loeb into retirement so a new police commissioner would be named and Jim could be reinstated.

"The, uh…" Bruce stammered, "The last time we spoke, I was very hard on you and I wanted to apologize." His voice cracked with emotion, "You've been a really good friend."

Slowly, he stepped forward before quickening his pace and throwing his arms around Jim. He didn't have many people left in the world that he was close to, not many who truly cared about him without expecting something in return and it was weighing heavily on his heart and his mind that he could have lost one of them that day.

Bird said goodbye to Nygma and Miss Kringle as they left and then hopped up on a desk and looked around, her eyes stopping on where Jim was hugging her little brother. A small smile spread over her lips as she watched them.

If someone had told her a year and a half ago when Jim Gordon first entered their lives that he'd end being so important to them both, Bird would have laughed in their face. To begin with she couldn't stand the overly self-righteous detective –and now here she was rushing to his aid without a second thought and when she referred to him as a friend, she genuinely meant it.

She watched them talking for a little while before Jim looked over in her direction and then Bruce turned around to see her. Her eyes widened slightly as she sat up straighter and wondered what they were saying about her.

She hadn't seen her brother since the day he'd came to Arkham to say he was going to try and take her shares in the family company away. She was so angered by it that she'd had his name added to a list of people not allowed to visit her and had only spoken to him on the phone less than a handful of times after that.

When Bruce started to walk towards her, Bird slid off the desk and stood to face her little brother who was nearly as tall as her.

She started to open her mouth to ask him what he was doing there, but she didn't get the chance. He didn't even slow down, just walked right up to her and hugged her so fast and forcefully that it nearly knocked her over.

"I'm sorry." He apologized, still holding onto her tightly, "Out of everyone, I should have been the one to believe you when you said you were innocent."

She swallowed hard and tried to control her breathing as emotions started to get the best of her.

"I was so mad at you." Bird admitted, as she finally raised her arms and held onto him just as tightly as he was clutching onto her.

"You have every right to feel that way. I understand." Bruce assured her, finally stepped back as he empathized, "You must have felt so betrayed."

"I did." She agreed with the corners of her mouth drooping down into a frown.  
Back when she was still in Arkham, she'd swore that she was never going to forgive him; she'd been so sure the anger and resentment was going to last forever.

But now as she stood there facing her little brother, who wasn't so little anymore, she couldn't feel the burning of red rage bubbling inside her any longer. He was growing up, becoming a man and it wasn't like she hadn't made her fair share of mistakes at his age.

You live and you learn and here he was taking the first step and apologizing –how could she still be mad at him?

"I want you to come by Wayne Manor." Bruce said.

Nodding and thinking he was just wanting to catch up, Bird nodded, "Okay, well, I'm sure Harvey and I could come over for dinner at some point this week-"

"No." He cut her off, "I meant just you. There is something you need to see… it's about dad."

Bird's forehead lined with confusion as she stared at him.

"Master Bruce, we'd best be on our way. I believe we're in the way of all these fine officers trying to do their job and we've been in their way long enough," Alfred said as he walked up to them.

Nodding in agreement, Bruce said goodbye to his sister and reminded her that she needed to come by their family's home soon.

Waiting until he was out of earshot, Alfred stepped up to Bird and said, "How are you holding up?"

"Hanging in there." She shrugged and attempted to joke, "Life on the outside takes a little getting used to."

"Mhmm…" He hummed, his voice lowering as he added, "You know the lawyer Master Bruce had retained in the case against you?"

Not giving her time to respond; he added in a knowing tone, "Disappeared without a trace. Strange isn't it?"

Not showing any reaction, she gave a shrug and questioned, "How could I have had anything to do with that? I was locked in the looney bin."

Alfred gave her a hard stare before he nodded, "Take care Lady Wayne. Sounds as though we can be expecting your presence at the house soon."

Bird watched as Alfred and Bruce left before she let out the breath she'd been holding.  
She knew very well that her brothers lawyer was missing –a hefty withdrawal from one of her accounts had insured Victor Zsasz took care of the problem for her. A fact she'd never let her brother find out, though in her mind she tried to justify that at least the blood wasn't on her own hands this time around.

With that thought she looked down and realized she still hadn't had the chance to wash Jim's blood off her hands yet. With a scrunched expression, she wiped her hands on the jeans but it didn't matter since the blood had already dried.

She was on her way towards the bathroom, when she spotted Jim walking into Essen's office and she changed course and followed him.

"Hey." Bird breathed as she walked into the office and found Jim staring at the desk and empty chair, "I'd as if you were okay, but…"

He looked over his shoulder at her, remembering saying the same thing to her right after she'd gotten out of the asylum.

"We still need to go over everything Barbara said to you on the phone." He reminded her, as he stepped forward and picked up a pad of paper off the desk.

"Okay." Bird nodded, "Can I at least wash your blood off my hand first?" With an arched brow she added, "Not a huge fan of the feeling."

Jim opened his mouth, but his gaze went past Bird to the doorway. Looking over her shoulder she saw Bullock headed towards them.

He walked in the room and looked at the desk before directing his attention to his old partner and stating, "Essen was a good woman."

"And a good cop." Jim added.

Bullock moved his suit jacket to the side revealing the detectives badge on his belt.

Jim had tried a few times since rejoining the force to convince him to come back, but he's made it clear the he'd moved on and found a life and happiness after his time at the GCPD and wasn't looking to come back.

"It's good to see you." Jim said, walking closer to where he was standing, "But you don't have to come back to teh force."

"Let's not talk about it." Bullock swallowed, "We are who we are, right? No use fighting it."

Bird's gaze dropped to the floor at his words and she took a couple steps back, intending to slip out the door and leave them to talk but one of the officers darted into the office, "Guys, you need to see this."

He switched on the tv and stood back so everyone else could see what he was talking about.

"I'm reporting live from the scene of the GCPD massacre. We have just obtained video footage of the attack recorded by one of the assailants. I want to warn those of you watching, what you're about to see is very graphic." The reporter on screen cautioned the audience.

Bullock and Jim exchanged looks and Bird moved closer to the tv to see what was going on.

There was a pause of white screen while the footage loaded until the image of a dying police officer was on the screen with a gunshot wound on his chest bleeding through the blue uniform.

The camera tilted and the was being raised until the blood spattered face of Jerome Valeska was center screen.

"Hello, Gotham City! We're the Maniax. And I'm Jerome, the shot caller of our little gang. We're here to spread the message of wisdom and hope." He said, until the wounded officer in the background made a pained noise and the smile on Jerome's face turned to an expression of annoyance. Pulling the gun from the holster of the stolen police uniform he was dressed in, Jerome shot the officer and looked back into the camera, "Some people have no manners."

"My god…" Bullock breathed, a look verging somewhere between disgust and hatred emerging on his face.

"You're all prisoners. What you call sanity, it's just a prison in your minds that stops you from seeing that you're just little tiny cogs in a giant absurd machine." Jerome spoke loudly, each word full of conviction, "Wake up! Why be a cog? Be free like us."

He burst into another fit of laughter and Bird shook her head.  
That damn laugh of his, the one that she'd once found entertaining, always seemed to burrow so deep inside of her skull that sometime it took days before it would stop haunting her.

"Just remember, smile." Jerome added, before breaking out into another fit of laughter and panning the camera to show the bloody mess he and the Maniax were leaving behind them. "Time to go. But don't worry. We'll be back very soon. Hang on to your hats, folks. 'Cause you ain't seen nothing yet!"

The screen faded to black with the sound of his laughing still playing through the speakers until everything fell into silence and Jim shut the television off.

Bullock looked over to Bird, his eyes landing on red stain on her cheek and he leaned in some and squinted as he questioned, "What is that? Is it blood, looks like a lip print..."

Reaching a hand up and feeling the dried blood, Bird nodded, "Yeah, Barbara kissed me."

Shaking his head Bullock looked back to Jim, "I warned you about Barbara back in the day."  
Jutting a thumb towards Bird he added, "About this one too, but you still got her hanging around."

Jim gave him an unamused expression and Bird rolled her eyes, "Ha-ha"

 **•••**

* * *

 **A/N - I hope you all liked the chapter! You can always find me on Tumblr (twofacedharveydent).**

 **I want to take a moment to thank everyone who has followed and/or added Wasteland to your favorites.  
And a huge thanks to Shadow knight1121, SusieSamurai, Amelia, Land of a billion lights, xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, MzzLighwood, SmellYourScentForMiles, Katniss789, Miss E Charlotte, Lolli, Tricksnottreats, and RestingDove for reviewing the last chapter!**


	4. All The Kings Men

**IV**

" _Nobody just snaps. I mean, a bomb doesn't become a bomb when the wick is lit." – Noah Foster, Scream: The TV Series_

* * *

 **•••**

"Are you sure we should be going to this thing?" Bird called out, as she unzipped the garment bag her evening gown had been delivered in and trailed her hands over the soft, expensive fabric.

"This _thing_ is a charity event to raise money for the children's hospital." Harvey yelled back as he stood in the master bathroom fixing his tie in front of the mirror, "You already told your brother we'd see him there."

"Ugh, I know." She complained, looking towards the open bathroom door and pointing out, "But we're still trying to get things back on track with us and something bad always happens when we show up at these big events."

"It's going to be fine." He assured her, "Plus, you can't spend every day cooped up in the house, Starling. You were wrongly accused of a crime that you didn't commit and once new evidence came to light; you were released and the charges were dropped. You've got no reason to be hiding away."

"Right." She scoffed, "Even though people still think I'm guilty."

"And hiding from everyone isn't going to prove them wrong…" Harvey's voice trailed off as he stepped out of the bathroom and saw Bird standing in front of the closet wearing only her bra and underwear.

"What are you doing?" He questioned, slowing stepping out further into the room.

"Having trouble talking myself into going to this thing." She breathed, turning to face him.

"No… I mean…" His voice trailed off again and he glanced around the room.

"What?" She pushed.

"Nothing. Just you should probably get dressed, we're already running late." He reminded her.

But she knew him better than that. There was something on his mind that he was keeping to himself.

"Seriously, Harvey… what?" She sighed.

"You're just… it's just that you're standing here barely dressed when you didn't even like for me to see your scars in dim lighting before." He pointed out, motioning to her stomach where her skin had been left permanently damaged from being shot and left for dead as a teenager.

"Do my scars bother you now?" Her eyebrows raised and the question came out sounding closer to an accusation.

"No, No! Of course not. But before you went into Arkham you were still struggling with feeling comfortable without clothes in the dark and now…"

"And now I've spent months in a place like Arkham where you barely have any privacy. Someone even takes you into the shower room and stays the entire time." Looking down to her scarred stomach she gave a shrug.

Harvey was silent as he watched her and started to realize just how much her time away had changed her. There were moments when he'd see parts of her old self show through, but mainly she still seemed hollow. As if the asylum had stolen a piece of her and she didn't get it back when she left.

 **•••**

As they both stepped up to the doors where the event was being held and doors were pulled open for them, Harvey held his arm out ad Bird linked her arm with his. Pulling in a deep breath she gave him a small nod and they walked into the building together.

Almost immediately they spotted Bruce and Alfred just across the way, getting ready to follow the red carpet into the main room.

"This is a waste of time." Bruce complained, looking to Alfred and showing every ounce of disdain he felt towards the way he was spending the evening.

"I don't disagree, little brother." Bird called out from behind him.

He turned around and gave her a smile. They were still trying to work on the damage their relationship had suffered during her time Arkham, but they seemed to be getting to a good place.

"Stop it; the both of you!" Alfred instructed looking between them, "Your parents were both patrons to the children's hospital –therefore, it makes you patrons. Besides… there's going to be magician and you like magicians, don't you?"

"Yeah." Bird sighed at the same time Bruce answered, "No, I don't."

"That's because you're no fun." Bird held back a smile as she looked at her brother.

"That's not true." Bruce argued, "I'm fun." He glanced up to Alfred who avoided his gaze and then over to Harvey who gave him a warm smile, but didn't say anything.

"I know to have to fun." He stressed, feeling the need to defend himself when it seemed no one was inclined to agree with him, "It's just that there is a time and place for everything."

"We'll see you inside." Bird excused, as she and Harvey started for the red carpeted entry way.

Blowing out a breath, he looked around, "I will never get used to these events." With a shake of the head he added, "And why they funnel so much into throwing parties instead of just donating that to the cause."

"Because how else would Gotham's one-percent get to make a big deal about tossing their pocket change into charitable causes?" Bird smirked as she spoke.

"You do realize you're one of those one-percenters." Harvey pointed out before leaning down and pressing a kiss to her lips.

"Which is why I need to go write a check so we can out of here sooner rather than later." Bird said as she started to pull her checkbook from the black satin clutch she'd brought with her.

"And miss the magician?" Harvey smiled, "I'm going to get us something to drink."

She nodded and just as he started to walk towards the bar, she caught sight of her little brother talking to Selina –whom she guessed was there to pick the hefty pockets of the attendees.

Spinning on her heels she walked towards the stage where the donation table was set up to leave a large contribution towards the children's hospital.

It was a little while later that Harvey caught up with her and handed her a flute of champagne. With a small smile and thanks, she took a sip and Harvey questioned, "Does Alfred know Lee and Jim are dating?"

"I don't know." She shrugged, "Why?"

"Well, because when I passed them, I heard him bragging about knowing the head chef at Chez Parnes." Harvey explained, taking a drink from his own glass and nodding towards where Alfred was still trying to smooth talk Leslie Thompkins.

"I love Chez Parnes." Bird commented, "We should make reservations there soon."

"Yes." Harvey nodded, "I'll call them right up and use my district attorney credentials to get us the best seat in the house."

"Shut up." She laughed and nudged his side and for the moment, if only for a single fleeting instant, all felt right between them again.  
The tension and the feeling of walking on eggshells around one another faded into the familiar comfort they used to know.

Narrowing her eyes slightly, Bird realized, "Oh my god… I think you're right. Alfred is totally flirting with Lee!" With a laugh she brought the glass back to her glossed pink lips and added, "Poor thing. He probably doesn't have a clue she's taken."

"But good for him. He needs to get out more." Bird added and Harvey laughed.

"Miss Wayne." A voice called, "And Counselor Dent."

Turning around the couple was greeted by the friendly face of Deputy Mayor Harrison Kane.

"Deputy Mayor, it's good to see you." Harvey charmingly greeted back, shaking the hand that had been extended to him.

"Any news on Mayor James?" Bird questioned, extending her own hand –only instead of a shake, he kissed the back of her hand.

"No, I'm afraid not." He let out a sigh, "It's a real mystery. No one has seen or heard anything from him."

Harvey shook his head back and forth. Mayor James certainly hadn't been the best mayor that Gotham City had seen –but it also wasn't like him to up and disappear.

"Well, I'd toss out my two-cents, but people are really getting sick of my conspiracy theories." Bird said with a tight smile and a glance over at Harvey's direction.  
It seemed like every time she brought up her being framed for murder, he seemed less and less interested in hearing what she had to say.

Kane looked between the couple with his mouth loosely open. He got the feeling he'd just walked up on something he wasn't and shouldn't be a part of.

"I should get going." He finally said, "I just saw you from the across the room and thought I'd come over and say hello."

Once he was gone, Harvey turned to face her and anger flashed in his eyes, "Why did you have to go and say that?"

"Because it's the truth. I have theories, you know. I have theories on what could have happened to Mayor James, but I know the second I start talking about anything like that –you shut it down so fast." Bird argued with him.

"Saying that you were framed for a crime isn't exactly the best defense, Starling."

"But it's what happened!"

Harvey took in a deep breath and started to say that he didn't want to argue with her there, but stopped when he saw her looking past him with an almost shellshocked expression.

"Harvey…" She breathed, "Who is that?"

Turning around he followed her line of sight to the man that Deputy Mayor Kane was now speaking with, "That's Theo Galavan. He's new to Gotham from what I understand. Some sort of billionaire business man. He spoke at Loeb's retirement." Nodding the African American woman beside him he continued, "That's his sister, I think her name is Tabitha."

"Why?" Harvey questioned.

"I… I don't know, I just feel like I've seen them somewhere." Putting a hand on the side of her head she breathed, "It's fuzzy."

His eyes fell to her still nearly full glass of champagne and he questioned, "You need to sit down?"

"No. I'm okay." She tried to sell the lie with a smile, but when her eyes drifted back over to where Theo was standing and he looked across the room at her, their eyes locked and the glass of champagne fell from her hand and onto the floor.

Bird quickly stepped back away from the spilled liquid and broken glass and Harvey looked around at the people nearby who were staring at them.

"Come on, let's sit down at one of the tables." He quietly said, trying to take her hand in his but she shrugged him away, "I don't need to sit down."

Biting his tongue at the snippiness in her tone, Harvey said he was going to get someone to clean the mess up so no one fell and got hurt.

Once he was gone, she looked back up just in time to see Tabitha wink at her before disappearing into the crowd.

Bird's heart felt like it had stopped mid-beat inside of her chest. Her lungs started to tighten and her eyes darted back and forth trying to find the nearest exit.

"Lady Wayne?" Alfred said, gently laying a hand on Bird's shoulder, "Is everything alright?"

"I'm fine." She feigned a smile as she looked at him, but the tears causing her eyes to glisten led him to believe that couldn't be further from the truth.

"What's happened?" He questioned, looking around and making a mental note of where Bruce was in case they all needed to leave.

"It just slipped from my hand." Bird lied, placing a hand on her forehead and scolding, "Clumsy me."

"You are a lot of things, Lady Wayne, but clumsy is not one of them." Alfred said, his voice strong and showing he wasn't buying into her lies, "Come on now. What reason have you got to lie to me?"

"I'm not lying." She sighed, looking around and trying to catch sight of either Galavan sibling, "I just… I thought I might have seen someone I know, but I can't be sure."

Pulling herself together she put on a much more believable expression and assured him, "Nothing to be worried about."

"You're sure?"

"Yes." Bird nodded, "I saw you talking to Lee a minute ago."

"You're familiar with Dr. Thompkins?" Alfred asked, not giving her time to answer as he questioned, "Say, if I needed to pop out of Wayne Manor for a night –would you be able to come by and keep an eye on your brother?"

His eyebrows lowered at the expression on Bird's face and he asked, "What?"

"Nothing." She chuckled, "Alfred, if you get Lee to agree to go out on a date with you –I will clear anything on my schedule to come and watch Bruce. I promise."

His head cocked to the side, "Why'd you have to go and say it like that? You don't think I have a chance?"

"It's not that." Bird admitted, "You can be very charming and the accent is a plus…"

"Then what's the problem, ay?" He pushed.

Bird opened her mouth to tell him that it was because Lee was currently involved with Jim Gordon, but when Alfred saw Selina walking away from a now upset looking Bruce he sighed, "I'd better check on Master Bruce –but we're coming back to this conversation."

Bird watched as he walked away and then her gaze fell back to the floor, before she, herself, turned and walked away from the mess she'd made.

Making her way away from the crowd, she headed over to a dimly lit corner by the stage intending to take a couple moments to try and get a handle on herself.  
Maybe she had ventured out to such a big event far sooner than she'd been ready too –or maybe something bigger was at play.

For the moment she wasn't sure, but there was a feeling creeping over skin –like the night was about to take a turn for the worse and she found herself regretting ever coming there in the first place.

Shaking her head, she decided it was time to tell Harvey they needed to leave and find Alfred and her brother so they could all get out of there.  
But just as she took a few steps forward to see where they'd all went –there was brute, sharp pain on the back of head just before everything went dark.

 **•••**

With a groan, Bird's eyes started to flutter open and the first sensation she felt was the throbbing in her head. She started to reach a hand up to where she'd been hit, but her arms wouldn't move.

Forcing her eyes open farther she realized she looked around and saw her arms and wrists were tightly locked in place by restraints on a large wheel.

"What the hell…" She breathed.

"Bird!" She could hear Lee frantically calling out.

Blinking several times she finally got her eyes to focus well enough to see Lee Thompkins across from her, also tied up to the same style of wheel.  
Getting a better look at the one she was tied to, Bird realized they looked like the wheels that magicians would use when throwing knives at their assistants in acts.

"You've been out a while." Lee stated, struggling to break free, "We have to get out of here. It's Jerome and Barbara."

"What the hell are you talking about?" She managed to ask.

Seeing that she was still waking up from being knocked unconscious, Lee's voice raised, "Bird, you need to focus, okay?" Pausing for a second she explained, "I don't know what happened to the real magic act, but Jerome and Barbara are out there on stage right now. I was in the process of calling Jim when someone chloroformed me and I'm not sure how much he heard before that happened. I woke up a couple minutes ago tied up like this –I don't know much else."

"Other then we need to get out of here?" Bird asked, a dull look in her eyes as she dropped her already sore head back against the wood wheel, as if any fight she'd possessed was long gone.

Lee's eyebrows lowered, "Yes, we need to get out of here. What are you doing?"

"It's pointless." She breathed, "I'm not strong enough to break these restraints and I doubt you are either."

"So you're not even going to try?" Lee's voice came out as a hiss through her teeth, still trying to pull away from the wheel, despite the feeling like she was just ounces away from pressuring her wrists into dislocation.

"Well, I could try to flip this thing over, but chances are it would fall forward and I'm lucky my nose healed in the right shape the last time it was broken." She spoke as she stared up to ceiling behind the stage and listened as sounds of panic started to erupt from the charity event.

Lee stopped struggling long enough to look back to Bird in complete disbelief. She'd heard stories of how tough she was, she'd seen her in action mere days ago at the police station and in truth when she'd woke up to see Bird back there with her, she'd thought if Bird woke up in time they'd have a fighting chance of making it out.

Only now she felt like she was staring at someone she didn't know. Someone who's fight had fled and Lee's heart started to race even faster inside of her own chest when the sounds of rapid automatic gunfire sounded from the other side of the thick theatre curtains.

"Your brother is out there!" Lee reminded her, trying to think of anything she could say to light a figurative fire under the other brunette, "Harvey is out there."

Bird raised her head and looked at her, "Alfred will get Bruce to safety."

Pinning her eyes shut; she pulled in a deep breath and said, "Stop struggling, you're only going to wear yourself down. I meant what I said, we're not strong enough to break these restraints. They're leather cuffs sturdy enough to withstand someone being held in place while the wheel is spun around."

Dropping back against the hard wood backing, Lee exasperatingly questioned, "What do we do then?"

"Hope one of use gets close enough to grab some sort of blade and manage to cut ourselves free." She offered up with an attempt at a shrug, "Aside from that, about the only thing we can do is kick or head-butt someone if they get close enough."

"And hope that Jim understood what was going on from my phone call." Lee pointed out.

Bird closed her eyes and let out another groan when she could hear Jerome's laughing echoing over the sounds of more gunshots and party patrons screams of terror.

It was several minutes later that the screaming quieted down as Jerome and the lackeys he had working for him got every back into their seats from fear of violence, that he walked back stage and stopped to look at Bird.

Flashing her a smile, he greeted, "Hiya gorgeous."

"Jerome." Bird replied, rolling her head to the side to look his direction, "You know I used to think you had one of those laughs that causes everyone else to laugh too… but now the sound just annoys me –to death."

"Hmm." He dramatically hummed, tapping on the side of his chin from where he's just removed the prosthetic facial hair he no longer needed. No point in trying to conceal his identity now. Walking up to where Bird was defensively cuffed to the wheel, he stabbed the knife in his hand deep into the wood next to her head as he lowly pointed out, "Interesting choice of words, don't you think?"

With that he broke out into a fit of laughter just inches from in front of her face.

Pulling the knife back from the wood, he tucked it back into his pocket and turned to Lee as he took the hat he'd been wearing off and motioned towards the main stage, "Shall we?"

Lee didn't give him a verbal answer, just narrowed her eyes at him and Jerome flipped the hat in his hand before tossing it back on top of his head and saying, "We can't keep the crowd waiting."

He took a step forward and then comically added, "Ooh, I almost forgot." Turning back to Bird, he pushed the button attached to the stand on the base of the wheel to make it start spinning around in circles –flipping Bird upside down and then right sight up over and over.

She kept her eyes on a fixed target to keep the motion from making her dizzy, but she was aware that Jerome had taken Lee out to the stage.

It was a few minutes later that Barbara came backstage in her frilly pink magicians assistant costume to find Bird suspended upside down the wheel.

"Oh, B…" She breathed, "What a mess."

Walking over to her, she spun the wheel until Bird was right side up again and asked, "Miss me?"

"Why are you doing this?" Bird questioned, letting her irritation show, "I mean what is even the point of this?"

"I can't give all the details away." She cheerfully smiled, "Lee looks pretty terrified though, right?"

"Yeah, see, I get that you hate her… but why I am here? Is this because Jim and I kissed that one time? Really? We're supposed to be friends, B."

"Don't be silly." Barbara laughed, hitting Bird's shoulder, "You're locked down so you won't interfere with anything. I mean, really, you should take it as a compliment. You're too much of a badass to be left out there in the crowd."

The expression on her face changed slightly as she admitted, "I'd actually forgotten about that kiss though." Walking around and unlocking the rollers that the base of the wheel was sitting on she mumbled, "But apparently it's still fresh in your mind."

"Ladies and germs!" Jerome called out, getting the terrified room's full attention, "What a surprise we have in store for you tonight! Not just one –but two target girls!"  
With that he held the curtain over to the side and Barbara wheeled Bird out onto the stage next to where Lee was.

When no one responded, Jerome commanded, "A round of applause for them both!"

Scattered sounds of hand-clapping was heard from various spots in the crowd as no one was entirely sure how to react.

Squinting her eyes, Bird spotted Harvey at one of the tables close to the stage as he stared back at her with fear widened eyes. " _It's okay."_ She mouthed to him and she silently hoped it really would be.

She also spotted Alfred towards the back of the room, he appeared to have been into a fight but it was a relief that she didn't spot her brother anywhere.

As she caught sight of the Deputy Mayor's lifeless body on the stage –all Bird could do was hope that Bruce was somewhere safe.

"Now, if you'll excuse me… I have to make on little call." Jerome announced into the microphone. Taking a few steps backward and bowing, before he took Lee's cellphone from his pocket and called Jim's number.

When Jim answered the phone expecting it to be Lee, Jerome let out a laugh, " Sorry, Jimbo. It's just little old me; Jerome. Are you outside?" Looking towards the television camera from the entire night being a televised event, he gasped "You are, aren't you? Oh, goody!"

I swear to God, if you've hurt her..." Jim started to threaten.

Glancing over his shoulder to where Lee was, Jerome said into the phone, "Breathe, James. I haven't touched a hair on your girlfriend's pretty head. See for yourself. This is live television after all." He listened to sounds of officers in the background as they scene outside started to grow with more emergency responders and heard someone announce the television feed was up and running again.

"Oh, wait…" Jerome taunted, as he looked over to where Bird was and remembered how defensive Jim got when Bird was in the interrogation room with them, "Now which one is it that you're worried about, Jimbo? I mean, I know Lee's your girlfriend but I think we both know you can be a tad overly protective of the other one…"

"What are you…" Jim started to ask until he saw the television feed in one of the media trucks set up outside the event and saw that both Lee and Bird were trapped and defenseless on the wooden wheels. "You son of a bitch!" Jim hissed through the phone.

Cupping a hand over the phone Jerome winked at Bird as he whisper-yelled, "I think he's worried about you."

With a laugh he thought of what Jim had said and conceded, "True, but not the point. Hey, let's talk about what I want." Looking down he mumbled, "Excuse me." To the Deputy Mayor's dead body on his way to get closer to the camera.

Jerome cleared his throat, "Forty-seven million, a helicopter, obviously, the dry cleaning I left at Mr. Chang's... be careful, the man is a crook... and, hmm, I don't know, a pony." Another laugh slipped through, "Uh... You got ten minutes, or I start killing people. Remember, this is being broadcast to every home in Gotham, so, you know, don't let people die. Bye."

When he heard the other end of the line go silent, Jim pulled his cellphone away from his ear and leaned in to see the T.V screen better.  
Lee looked scared and kept eyeing where Barbara was standing beside her and then there was Bird –who looked more bored then anything.

"We gotta get in there." He gruffly barked at the group of nearby uniformed officers.

After he finished up another burst of laughter, Jerome cleared his throat and looked back to Bird as he said, "Well, I think that went well."

Knowing he wanted a reaction; that he fed off getting a response out of people –Bird rolled her eyes and refused the type of reaction he was looking for.

"Enough!" A voice bellowed out from the crowd, as Theo Galavan made himself noticed and started walking up through the crowd, "You need to pack up your pathetic little side show and leave."

"Is that right?" Jerome asked with a pointed smile.

"It may be presumptuous to speak for all the citizens of Gotham, but we are sick of you! You're a small vicious man with a pathetic need for attention. Enough man." Theo said as he stepped up onto the stage, "For godsakes, enough."

"I'm curious what your leverage is here, mister…" Jerome's voice trailed off, wanting to know the name of who'd been brazen enough to interrupt.

"Theo Galavan." He proudly proclaimed, and Bird didn't miss how he turned and looked straight into the camera as he spoke.

"Well, Mr. Theo Galavan if you don't sit down, I'm going to shoot you." Jerome stated, patting him on the cheeks as he added in a higher voice, "In the face."

"I know there is some human decency left in you." Theo pleaded and Jerome's face changed to one of bewilderment as he pointed at himself with a thumb.

Nodding, Theo continued, "If you need to take a hostage, then take me, but let these people go home to their families; to their children."

Apparently having heard enough of his voice, Barbara picked up a small version of a sledge hammer from the table of stage props and whacked him over the head with it.

Shocked gasps spread through the tables as Theo's body fell motionless to the floor.

"Boring…" Barbara breathed and Bird couldn't help but nod along with her. She still couldn't put her finger on it, unable to pinpoint exactly what it was –but she didn't trust Theo Galavan or his sister at all.

"Now…" Jerome breathed into the microphone as he scanned the room, "Who wants to play a game to pass the time? I'm going to need a volunteer." His eyes darted back and forth, he could practically see people shrinking down in their seats hoping they wouldn't pick him.

"No volunteers?" He overdramatized the look of hurt on his face and placed a hand over his heart, "Well this is quite the predicament-"

"I'd give you forty-seven million dollars and a pony if you'd just shut up." Bird complained, her jaw tense with anger and her head still throbbing from where she'd been hurt.

Looking over his shoulder, another smile spread over Jerome's face as he said, "Say… what's his name?"

"Who's name?" Bird questioned.

"The boyfriend." Jerome answered, his smile growing as he saw the despondent look fade from her face and give way to the first look of concern he'd seen from her all night.

"He's not her boyfriend, he's her fiancé." Barbara corrected him, ignoring the look that Bird shot her, "His name is Harvey Dent."

With his mouth so close to microphone his lips brushed against it; Jerome said in the best announcer impersonation he could muster, "Harvey Dent, step right up!"

Bird looked over to where Harvey was sitting and shook her head back and forth, signaling for him to stay put.

"You don't need him." Bird quickly said, "I'll volunteer."

"Harvey…" Jerome breathed in a deep voice back into the microphone ignoring Bird's pleas from behind him.

When no one stood up, Jerome picked up a gun from the prop table and pointed it at Bird, but faced the audience and warned, "Last chance Harvey, or Bird here-"

"Stop!" Alfred yelled, trying to move but couldn't get anywhere when one of the lackeys pointed a gun in his face.

"Alright!" Harvey yelled as he stood up, "Just don't hurt her, please."

"Harvey, don't!" Bird yelled, for the first time really putting in a fight with her restraints.

All eyes were on Harvey as he slowly approached the stage, his mind racing with all the possible horrors that might be awaiting him.

Stating that Harvey was taller than he expected, Jerome had him sit down in a chair on the stage where one of the men controlling the crowds with an automatic weapon, tied him to the chair.

Pulling a line of seemingly never ending handkerchiefs from his pocket, Jerome handed them to Barbara and looked to Harvey as he said, "Nothing personal. You lawyer types just talk too much."

Bird gritted her teeth and watched as Barbara used the colorful cloths to gag Harvey. Before the blonde returned to her spot on center stage, she leaned down and whispered something in his ear.

He looked up and his eyes locked with Birds; she didn't know what Barbara had whispered to him, but it couldn't have been anything good.

"You!" Jerome called out, motioning to the man who was now standing by the front table after his chair had been brought to the stage too, "Get up here."

The man slowly made his way up the stairs onto the stage where he was instructed to stand next to where Harvey was tied to the chair.

It wasn't until Barbara placed an apple on top of each of their heads that everyone realized what the game was.

Picking up one of the guns from the tray on the stage, Jerome pointed it between them trying to decide which target he'd aim for first.

"Jerome, stop!" Bird growled through her teeth, trying with all of her might to break free of the restraints.

"Shh!" He hissed over his shoulder at her, "I'm trying to concentrate."

When he pointed the gun right at Harvey's head, Bird's face twisted up into an expression falling somewhere between rage and anguish. "If you hurt him, I swear to god I'll kill you!"

A low series of gasps spread through room and Barbara dramatically cupped her hand over her own mouth.

"I will!" Bird continued to berate him, "There is no place in or out of Gotham that you could hide where I wouldn't find you. I will track you down and I'll-"

"Sounds exciting!" Jerome cut her off, grinning as he dropped the gun to the tray next to the few other weapons and pointed to Bird was he announced to audience, "Quite the imagination on this one."

"Isn't it sweet?" Barbara called out, before holding a hand to the side of her mouth and acting like she as spilling a secret as she said to the audience, "I think she loves him."

Holding onto the sides of the black topcoat of his magician's uniform, Jerome boasted, "I'm a very good shot." When he started to reach for the gun again and saw Bird's face twist up in anger again, he questioned, "You don't want to see?"

"No." She growled.

"But these people are here for a show!" He argued with her, motioning to all of the tables, before he looked back at her and wagged his eyebrows and picked one of the guns back up.

Pointing it right at Harvey's head again, Jerome cautioned, "Hold very still." Without giving Bird another chance to try and talk him out of it, he lined his sights and squeezed the trigger.

Harvey's eyes pinned shut and he waited –waited for the loud crack of the gunshot to echo through the room, waited pain or total loss of senses. Waiting for whatever would happen once the bullet left the chamber and made impact.  
He couldn't even hear Bird's voice as she screamed out for him.

But instead of the loud sound or pain, he was hit in the face with a cold stream of water. Slowly opening his eyes he realized that Jerome had been holding a very realistic looking water gun. His eyes cut over to where Bird was now hanging rather limply in the restraints on the wheel, her head dropped back against the wood in relief and her heavy breathing was shaking her entire body.

"Damn…" Jerome breathed, looking down to the gun in his hand. Looking up to the man who'd he'd forced to stand next to where Harvey was seated, he instructed, "Turn around."

Slowly the man turned around, careful to keep the red apple on his head for fear of what might happened if he didn't comply with the demands.

With a shrug, Jerome dropped the gun back to the table and picked up another –took aim and fired a shot –blasting the apple off of the man's head and into bits and pieces.

Somewhere in the crowd a woman screamed and several others gasped as they ducked for cover or tried to shield their dates and loved ones.

"Well, clap!" Jerome yelled.

Almost immediately the audience started to clap for him and he smiled as he blew on the end of the recently fired gun and then took a bow before motioning for the man to leave the stage and take his seat.

While Jerome continued to feed off the attention from the crowd that his stunts were getting him, Barbara looked at Lee's terrified expression and smiled, "So, Lee, how's Jim doing?"  
Her eyes drifted over to where Bird was watching them and her smile grew as she added, "Or maybe Bird's the one I should be asking, hmm?"

When neither of them said anything back to her, she continued, "I hope he isn't blaming himself for this whole Essen being killed thing."

"You are one crazy bitch." Lee stated with gravel in her voice.

"So rude…" Barbara observed, "And to think Jim kisses that mouth." Without taking her eyes off Lee she added, "Of course it's not the only mouth he kisses."

Bird's eyes narrowed at the blonde, just waiting for her to announce to everyone what had happened between her and Jim –but her to surprise; Barbara didn't.

Blowing out a sigh, Barbara pushed the button on the side of the wheel stand and Lee's wheel started to slowly spin. She gritted her teeth and breathed heavily through the pain and stress the movement put on her joints.

"I'm going to make a prediction. Within a year, Jim and I will be back together." She laughed, leaning down to stay in Lee's face while she continued to be turned upside down. "Wanna know why?" Barbara asked.

Refusing to play into her antics, Lee stayed quiet.

"Because we're both the same. We both have a dark side and one day we will tell our grandchildren about how this man eating harpy almost tore us apart." Taking a few steps back, she held her arms out to the side and dramatically spun on the stage as she finished, "But in the end… love conquered all!"

As the wheel finally came to a stop, and Barbara walked closer to her, Lee brought her knee out and managed to hit her hard in the stomach. The blonde doubled over in pain before she picked up one of the sharp throwing daggers and lunged forward, but Jerome stopped her.

"It hasn't been ten minutes." He reminded her, as he struggled to pull the knife from her hand and mumbled, "Do we need to buy you a watch."

Birds' eyebrows lowered. Ten minutes? What were they waiting on?

Just as he turned around, Barbara punched Lee in the face with all her strength. The brunette cried out in pain from the impact and her head being knocked back against the wood.

"Well…" Jerome lowly breathed into the microphone, "I think it's time for tonight's first official victim. You all know and love; poor rich boy, parents murdered in an alley and my favorite volunteer. Where is Bruce Wayne?" He carried out the name, like an announcer of a television game show host.

Bird's eyes darted around the room, rechecking for any sign of her brother that she might have missed on first blush.

"You know I'm an orphan too, Bruce. I killed my parents though." Jerome continued before stepping away from the microphone and calling out, "Where are you hiding?"

"Bruce!" He shouted, causing the crowd to jump from the outburst, "Where are you buddy?"

"Kill his butler." Barbara offered up an idea of how to draw the youngest Wayne out.

"Don't you dare!" Bird hissed through gritted teeth as she returned to fighting against her restraints.

"We could." Jerome agreed, before his cheeks pointed from his smile and he countered, "But we have his sister right here."

"Now, wait just a minute-" Alfred yelled out from where he was standing when he saw Jerome turn back towards Bird, but he couldn't get closer to the stage when two armed men stepped in front of him.

"Hmm…" Jerome breathed as he stopped right in front of her, "Why don't you call that brother of yours out here. I know he's hiding somewhere…" He smiled as he trailed the edge of the blade he'd taken off Barbara across Bird's jaw.

The exits had been either locked or blocked off before he'd ever taken the stage. He wasn't sure where he was, but he knew Bruce was still in building. Now it was just a matter of getting him to show himself.

Not shying away from the feel of the cold metal against her skin, Bird said, "He's not here. You're wasting your time."

"Last chance Bruce…" Jerome yelled over his shoulder as he gave one last scan of the audience –almost all of whom were looking around themselves trying to catch a glimpse of the young teenager.

When Jerome continued to slide the blade down from her jaw to her neck, Harvey angrily yelled out and tried to pull his arms from the ropes he'd been bound with.  
Bird looked over at him, not able to able to understand what he was saying with his voice muffled against the clothes that had been used to gag him –but she could see the fear in his eyes.

"It's okay." She assured him.

"Is it?" Jerome laughed. Not sure how she was coming to that logic while being rendered nearly defenseless and entirely unarmed while he held a knife to her throat.

"Please…" She tightly smiled, her eyes moving from Harvey's face out to where Alfred was being forced to stand and watch the stage with armed men waiting for him to try and make another move. "Compared to some of the things I've had to face down, you're about as dangerous as a little puppy." Her eye sight stopped back on Jerome at the end of her sentence.

His smile grew at her words; eyes locked entirely on hers as he started to slide the blade down the side of her neck, applying enough pressure that a line of blood immediately pooled to the surface and started to run down her chest and soak into her strapless dress.

She didn't cry out in pain like he'd expected. She didn't even flinch.  
His head cocked to the side and he stepped even closer, bringing the knife out to where her arms were restrained out to either side; he started with the right arm. Making another cut running along her forearm; this one deeper than the last.

But again, she didn't react the way he'd expected.

The smile slowly fell from his lips and a look of sheer intrigue filled his eyes as he made another cut on her skin and she didn't appear to feel any pain from it.

Lee's eyebrows furrowed as she watched the scene taking place beside her on the stage.  
In some ways it reminded her of watching them together in the interrogation room together when he'd refused to speak to anyone but Bird.

It was the same sort of channel that seemed to be open between them, where nothing else around them existed –especially for Jerome.

Barbara watched as her partner in crime made another cut on her friend's skin –then another and another; each one deeper. Her eyes moved down to the floor where blood was starting to pool into puddles.

"It's not working." Barbara sternly said as she walked closer to them.

When Jerome moved the knife down to her side and started to push the blade into her skin, Bird slowly exhaled through the pain as he pushed the blade deeper. She was determined to not make a sound no matter the amount of pain she was feeling.  
She wasn't going to let him win –not about to give him the big reaction he was trying to get out of her.

Plus, if her bother was still in the building somewhere, she wasn't going to let the sounds of her in pain draw him out into danger.

"Hey!" Barbara snapped as Jerome continued to bury the blade deeper into Bird's skin.

The smile returned to his lips as he readjusted his grip on the handle and started to turn the knife in the freshly opened wound. Aside from the quickening of her breathing, she showed no other reaction to what was being done to her.

Their eyes locked and his own breathing was growing uneven –he'd have sworn someone turned the heat up in the room.

He could feel her blood on his hand how, seeping between his fingers and making it harder to keep a grip on the handle of the knife.

Jerome looked down to his crimson stained hand and then back to her face as he said, "I think I'm in love."

"Enough." Barbara complained, as she saw Jerome pull the knife from Bird's side and start to pick the next spot to stab her. She grabbed onto his arm and stopped him, "Clearly this isn't working. Kill the butler."

"Oh, what's the matter, B?" Bird choked out, "You don't wanna get in on this."

"It's definitely love." Jerome repeated glancing over to the television camera as he spoke.

Switching the knife to the other hand, he wiped his bloody hand on his pants and made his way back to the front of the stage where the microphone was.

Once his back was turned, Bird dropped her head back against the wood and pinned her eyes shut as she tried to catch her breath.

"Hey, hey!" Lee whisper yelled over at her, "Keep your eyes open. Stay awake."

"I'm fine." Bird argued with her.

Feeling something on her hand, she looked over to see Barbara and started to ask her what she was doing, but then she saw the blonde was placing a small knife in her hand.

Barbara's eyes locked with Bird's and she winked at her, before spinning on her heels and going to stand beside Jerome.

Bird tightened her grip around the knife, she wasn't sure if Barbara was really trying to help her or if this was going to be some sort of trick. Either way, she wasted no time in getting to work on trying to cut through the thick leather strap around her wrist.

Jerome called back out through the microphone for Bruce Wayne, this time threatening Alfred's life if he didn't comply. "Last chance, Bruce. It's about to get very butler brainy up here."

"Brucey!" Jerome's voice came out high-pitched and with a squeal of interference in the speakers, everyone cringed from the sound. "Or maybe I should pick back up where I left off with your sister…"

Bird's attention was drawn to the back of the room where she saw her brother's face from between the dark red curtains just before he was pulled back out of sight and she caught a brief glimpse of Jim before they were both hidden by the curtain again.

Sweat beaded across her forehead with her struggling even harder to get the restraints cut so she should break free.

"Ah, I'm bored." Jerome waved a hand as he walked away from the microphone, "Shoot the butler."

He turned back towards Bird, but Barbara stepped between them, staring him down as she crossed her arms over her chest –clearly not going to let him inflict more damage on her friend then he already had.

"Stop!"

Everyone looked up to see Bruce walk out into the room just as Alfred was about to be killed.

Bird watched as her brother ran to Alfred and upon first glance to the average witness, it would have just looked like a hug. But to Bird's well trained eye –she saw Alfred slip something out of Bruce's suit jacket and quickly hide it in his own.

It had to be a gun, she thought to herself. Looking back to where she'd spotted her brother behind the curtain to see that Jim was still there.

As Jerome started to pull Bruce towards the stage, Bird tried to stay calm and focused. Telling herself that there was some sort of plan at work, but as much as she'd grown to trust Jim –it didn't ease her worry much as she could see Jerome holding the knife he'd used on her, against her little brother's neck.

"You." Jerome called out to one of the men working for him, "Check behind the curtain; make sure no one's playing silly buggers."

As the man started for the curtain, Jim emerged; firing a couple shots and killing him.

Alfred fought the men who'd been glued to him since Jerome took over the room, and Jim continued to pick off the armed goons.

Once he got his arms free, Alfred pulled the gun from his suit that he'd taken off Bruce and turned to the stage.

"Drop the knife!" Jim yelled, taking aim at Jerome as the redhead pushed the knife blade against the teenager's throat. Smearing Bird's blood on her bothers neck.

Jerome manically laughed as he looked between Alfred and Jim –both of whom had a gun pointed at him, but neither of them willing to risk pulling the trigger.

"I don't have a clean shot." Jim admitted, not taking his eyes off his target.

"Stay calm Bruce." Alfred instructed.

With another fit of laughter, Jerome spoke into Bruce's ear, "Seems like we got ourselves a pickle. What do you say, Brucey boy? Want to boost our ratings, huh?" His laughing grew deeper as she readjusted the blade against his neck, "Smile."

Finally getting the restraint cut off of one wrist, the knife she'd been using fell to the floor and Bird scrambled to unfasten the secure buckle on the other wrist.

"I said, enough!" Theo Galavan yelled as he got back to his feet after coming to on the floor where he'd been laying since Barbara got him in the back of the head with the hammer earlier in the night.

Letting go of Bruce, Jerome turned to look at Theo just as Bird fully freed herself.

"Look, B-" Barbara started to whisper as she turned to Bird, but clearly she wasn't interested in anything her friend had to say when she brought her arm back and punched Barbara square in the face.

With a cry of pain, Barbara hit the floor of the stage, holding onto her heavily bleeding nose and gasping for air.

Bird quickly lunged forward and grabbed onto her brother's arm, pulling him back behind her to keep him safe as Theo and Jerome stared each other down.

She looked back up just in time to see Theo plunge a knife deep into the side of Jerome's neck. Shocked screams and gasps echoed off the walls of the room and she could feel Bruce's arms tighten around where he was holding onto her.

Everyone watched as Jerome started to collapse onto the floor, chocking and gasping for air. Theo lowered him down, keeping the blade buried in his skin as blood started to run out of Jerome's mouth.  
Bird watched as Theo spoke to him, though from where she was standing she couldn't make out anything that was being said.  
The gasps had quieted and the room was in a state of complete silence as Jerome breathed his last breath and died with a wide smile on his face –showing off his blood stained teeth.

Getting to her feet and seeing what all was happening, Barbara darted towards the set up that led to an escape hatch set beneath the stage. She jumped onto the hatch and threw her arms up as the red curtain dropped around it to create the illusion she'd vanished into thin air.

"Jim, get her!" Lee shouted, but it was too late. The curtain dropped and the escape hatch was closed –with no sign of Barbara anywhere.

 **•••**

Bird looked over to Harvey as he drove them home. He'd stood by her while the paramedics got her stitched and bandaged up, but he'd barely said three words to her the entire time. Aside from when he'd pleaded with her to listen to their advice and go to the hospital, but she refused.

"Harvey?" She quietly said.

"Yeah?" He answered, not even looking over at her. Though, she had a feeling it was more that he didn't want to look at her versus paying attention to the road.

Silently, she stared out of her window and watched the city lights blur as they passed neon signs.

Something was different, she could feel it, something had shifted between them.

"Hey…" She barely said over a whisper without looking at him, "Remember all the times we got into life and death situations before and once we made it through –all the fighting and whatever else had happened between us before that… well, it didn't matter anymore because we'd lived?"

His grip tightened on the steering wheel and in an almost eerily calm voice he countered, "Hey, remember when you were just as invested in us; in our relationship as me?"

"What are you talking about?" Bird asked, whipping her head back in his direction.

"Barbara told me about you and Jim." He finally admitted, running right through a red light without even noticing it, "I knew it. I just knew something was going on with the two of you. I knew it the night we ran into him at the circus and you both were acting so strange…"

"I'm sorry, Harvey." Bird quickly said.  
But the tone in her voice didn't sound entirely sincere, more like it was an automated response.

"Are you?" He scoffed, his foot pressing down harder on the gas pedal harder but he didn't seem to notice how fast the city scenery was moving around them, "Just like you were sorry when you kissed Penguin too? Or sorry that you completely neglected to tell me you were involved with the Falcone Crime Family when we met and started seeing each other. Or are you just sorry that you got caught and that things finally caught up with you."

"All of it." She shook her head; while it was the truth, she was also feeling attacked and as much as she knew she'd screwed things up –she also knew the problems between them didn't lie on her shoulders alone.  
No matter how much he'd like to put all the blame on her.

"It's not like I kissed him to hurt you, okay? I didn't just wake up one day and-" She started to try and explain, but he didn't –he _couldn't_ hear it right now.

"Just stop talking." He cut her off, "I don't even want to know."

"You don't want to talk about this?" Bird questioned, her forehead lining as she finally looked over at him.

"Nope."

Bird bit down on the side of her tongue. They'd both been through such an ordeal that night; been pushed to their breaking points and utterly exhausted.

Leaving it be would be the smart choice, of course. Deep down she knew that, but for some reason she'd never been one to let a sleeping dog lie.

"It happened after Falcone had those men jump you." Bird admitted, "I was in a bad place and-"

"And that's not an excuse." He loudly spoke over her, before the interior of his car got unnervingly silent as he thought about what she said. Looking over at her he asked, "Are you really trying to defend what you did by telling me that you kissed Jim Gordon while I was lying in a hospital bed?"

"I'm not defending it!" She hissed, "He's the one who kissed me and I just need you to understand-"

"Oh, I understand!" His voice causing her to cringe in the enclosed space, "I understand it perfectly that nothing is ever your fault, is it? For over a year I've been faithful to you, you were the only person I had eyes and feelings for –while apparently, you've been going around kissing everyone!"

"That's not even-"

"But I guess I'm just supposed to forgive this too, right? Because it's not your fault, because _he_ kissed you and what was your excuse for when it happened with Penguin? Too much wine?"

Bird opened her mouth to try and speak, but he wouldn't let her get a word in.

"How am I supposed to trust you, Starling?" He yelled, "What am I supposed to do here?"

Before she could stop her mouth from moving she muttered, "Hit me?"

"What?" He yelled, looking back over at her as the road and other traffic became the least of his concern, "What the hell did you just say?"

"I think you heard me." She flatly said, turning in her seat some to face him, "Am I not supposed to bring that up? Hardly seems fair considering you're determined to throw my wrongs back in my face no matter how many times I've apologized."

Their eyes locked on one another in an intense stare –until the sound of a car horn honking shook both of the concentration and they both turned to see they were no longer in their lane and heading straight towards a red SUV who's driver was repeatedly honking.

Swerving back over into the correct lane, Harvey over-corrected and the tires on the passenger side of the car scraped against the sidewalk.

Seeing an upcoming parking lot, Harvey pulled in and shut the car off.

Both of them were sitting in silence; breathing labored from the close call they'd just had, until he cleared his throat and asked, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." She nodded, looking over at him in the dim lighting, "You?"

"I'm okay." He answered.

Pulling in a breath, Bird looked down to her hands as he softly asked, "But we're not are we?"

"It's been a rough night." He tried to excuse, "I think we're exhausted more than anything."  
But his white knuckled grip on the steering wheel contradicted his words. He was clearly still mad at her.

When he finally started the car and pulled back out onto the road to drive them home, Bird had feeling that the fight was far from over.  
It didn't seem like either of them would be getting much sleep that night.

 **•••**

Bird had just filled the kettle with water and was getting a cup down from the cabinet when she heard a knock on the door.

She glanced over to the time showing on the microwave and thought it seemed strange for anyone to be visiting so late at night.  
Maybe it was Jim, she considered, or maybe even the neighbors Harvey had apparently been making friends with in her absence.

Crossing the room, she opened another cabinet and pulled down the box of tea bags just before hearing the doorbell chime.

Realizing Harvey must have gone upstairs and wasn't getting the door, she made her way into the living room and opened up the door surprised to see a familiar face there.

"Butch?" She greeted, a smile appearing on her lips, "Hey…"

"Bird." He replied, giving her a nod and a smile.

"Uh, come in." She quickly said stepping to the side and allowing him to enter her home.

He let out a low whistle as he looked around and commented, "Some place you got here."

"Thanks." She politely nodded, but before she could question what brought him there –Harvey came down the stairs and demanded to know, "What is going on here?"

"Harvey… this is Butch Gilzean-"

"Yeah." He gruffly cut her off, "I know who he is, what is he doing in my house?"

"He's my friend." Bird strained with a tight lipped smile, "And last time I checked it was _our_ house."

"Oh, is it?" Harvey's voice bellowed through the room, "Because last I checked –I've been here trying to build our life together and you've been doing anything but; in fact you've apparently been going around sabotaging things yet again. Oh and that's right, kissing other people-"

"Slow it down haas." Butch grumbled, "And watch the way you're talking to her or we're gonna have a problem, understand?"

Throwing his hands up in the air, Harvey turned and headed back up the stairs.

"Nice guy you got there." Butch added, turning to look at Bird.

"He's had a stressful night." Bird excused, "Or did you miss the broadcast of the children's hospital benefit and the debacle it turned into?"

"That's why I'm here." He explained, but didn't get to say much else as the kettle started to whistle from the kitchen and Bird offered, "Tea?"

With a nod he followed her into the kitchen, thinking to himself how normal the place looked. In the few times he'd been inside of her apartment, the place had been cluttered with empty alcohol bottles and weapons stashed just barely out of sight.

Once they were sat down at the table, a concerned look grew on her face and she asked, "Oswald is alright, isn't he?"

"He's fine." Butch assured her, stirring some sugar into the hot tea in the cup as he admitted, "Worried about you though. He saw the hospital benefit on television too."

"So he sent you to check on me? He couldn't even find the time to show up here in person?" Bird questioned, her eyebrows raised high.

"He's busy." Butch tried to excuse.

"He's punishing me." Bird argued, "He's still mad at me for wanting to choose my own path. That's why he never came to see me in Arkham, or use his connections to help me and it's why he sent you to check on me instead of facing me. He wants me to suffer."

Her eyes narrowed and she quietly said with gravel in her voice, "You go back and tell him that I'm doing just fine on my own. That you've never seen me happier and-"

"We both know I can't lie to him." He said, even though he knew he didn't need to remind her of how Victor Zsasz had broken him down and brainwashed him to blindly follow Oswald's orders.

Blowing out a sigh, Bird ran her fingers through her hair and when she looked back up to Butch she started laughing.

"What?" He asked.

"It's just…" Shaking her head and containing herself, "Aside from the time Barbara came to see me, you're the first friend I've had over. I mean, here we are sitting in my kitchen drinking tea –things couldn't be any more normal…" Her voice trailed off and her laugh returned, only this time there was a tinge of madness in it. "This is what I wanted all along, right? Normal."

Rubbing her hands over her face she questioned, "Is this really what I gave my life up for?

Butch looked around the kitchen, taking another drink from his cup and waiting for her to pull herself back together.

"Maybe I should go see Oswald?" She finally questioned.

"Look…" Butch breathed, "I'm not even going to pretend that I understand whatever it is you and Oswald have with each other. I don't really wanna know, but I know you got out of that life for a reason, right?"

"What are you saying?" She asked.

"I'm saying that you got out once and damn neared died to get there. We both know if you go back to Oswald that you're gonna get pulled right back in and then isn't it going to make everything you went through pointless?"

"I don't know." She shrugged and he noticed with the way she was sitting that she seemed of a smaller statue than normal.

He watched her as she picked up her cup and slowly took a drink, before setting it back down and wrapping her arms around herself –almost as if she was trying to fold herself up and disappear into nothingness.

"I feel so stupid." She whispered, with another helpless shrug and while she was sure Butch had better things to do then sit around and listen to her troubles, for the moment she didn't have anyone else to talk to and she felt more alone than she'd care to admit.

Thoughts of the last few months and events of earlier that night flooded into her thoughts and she confessed, "I got myself to this point, you know? I'm the girl who always plays with fire and somehow still shocked every single time I get burned."

Butch avoided her eyes and took another drink. He'd never been that good at comforting anyone and he didn't have the slightest clue what to say to help her. Plus, even though he'd never been scared of her –over the years he nearly always felt like he had to walk on eggshells when talking to her.

There were times he'd tried to joke with her, or even times he'd tried to cheer her up and she'd flown off the handle about something.

Despite both his and Fish's fondness for her, they'd both said from trying to deal with her was a gamble. She wasn't exactly the most stable person.

"I gotta be honest." He finally said, "I hate seeing you down like this, but I don't know what to say to fix it."

With a sad smile, she chuckled, "You're supposed to tell me that it's not my fault. That I had no idea Jerome would want to kill my brother for whatever reason and that Barbara would be trying to help him-"

"You wouldn't believe me even if I did say all of that." He pointed out.

"True." She conceded, "But you could still say it."

With a small laugh, he finished the tea in his glass and looked around the kitchen. "You're not stupid." He assured her, "You are one of the smartest people I've ever met, you know that? I'm not gonna argue about the playing with fire part, because you're always flirting with danger –but you're resourceful and you're someone who never just gives up."

When she raised her head and looked at him, Butch added, "I'm not gonna sit here and act like I know what you went through in Arkham –cause I don't. I'm also not sure if that man you say you love has had anything to do with this… but you need to get rid of whatever it is that's broken you down so much. I've known you for years, Bird, and I'd like to think that I've gotten to know you pretty well and I gotta say that I barely recognize you right now."

"I lost hope." Bird spoke up, "The whole time I was in Arkham. Thinking that Oswald would finally show up, or my lawyer would eventually bring me some good news. Waiting for my brother to apologize for being an ass, for Harvey to actually be there when he promised he would. I just hoping that someone-"

"That someone would what?" Butch cut her off, "Save you?"

"I guess." She shrugged, "But the hours turned into days and then weeks and then weeks into months and I don't know how to come back from that. I went away, my life –my entire world hit the pause button only it turned out the rest of the world just kept spinning."

Tears stung at her eyes, but she didn't let fall them down her cheeks and her voice took on a tinge of hysteria as she stared at Butch and admitted, "My parents were killed well over a year ago, you know? And from then I'd been so worried about my own mortality because I'd convinced myself that my little brother wouldn't be okay without me. Harvey always seemed so worried about losing me; said he wouldn't be able to go on if he lost me, that even the idea of it was paralyzing to him and then I go away for months and he gets along just fine on his own. Even made some new friends and changed things around the house. Oswald told me that without me he didn't have anything and here he is running the city and he's doing fine on his own."

"Turns out I'm not nearly as important as I'd led myself to believe." She rested her elbows on the table and her head in her hands, "Tell me how I'm supposed to come back from that? Knowing that I don't really mean anything to anyone in the grand scheme of things?"

"You going away to an asylum for a few months is a lot different then you dying, your bother probably needs you a lot more then he even realizes. And Penguin? We both know he'd have gotten himself killed years ago if you weren't always there to have his back." Butch glanced up at ceiling and thought of how Harvey was on the second floor as he admitted, "And I never liked that one."

"Thanks." She struggled to give him a smile, "That's sweet of you to say, but it doesn't exactly help anything."

"You wanna know how to keep going? You stop waiting on them to realize how important you are –stop waiting on someone to save you." He paused, before reminding her of the answer she'd somehow lost along the way, "You have to save yourself."

 **•••**

* * *

 **A/N – Thank you all for reading. I hope you're liking the story so far and I'm so excited for Bird and Oswald to cross paths again soon. :)**

 **I owe a thanks to Land of a billion lights, MzzLightwood, guest, Amelia, southernbelle, Shadow knight1121, SmellYourScentForMiles, Maddie Rose, Helena, Miss E Charlotte, Love. Fiction. 2016, Katniss789,** **NolaLynne91and xxXWolfsLullabyXxx for reviewing since the last update. The support you're all showing for this story is everything to me!**


	5. All That Glitters Is Not Gold

**V**

" _So for now, I will miss you like I'll never see you again. And the next time I see you, I will kiss you like I'll never kiss you again. And when I fall asleep beside you I will fall asleep as if I'll never wake up again, because I don't know if I will. I don't know if I will."_ _― Charlotte Eriksson, Empty Roads & Broken Bottles_

* * *

•••

Harvey let out a tired sigh as he walked into the house and dropped his car keys into the small decorative dish on the end table just inside of the door.

When he took another breath, his nose immediately wrinkled up from the heavy scent of burnt food hanging in the air.

"Starling?" He called out, as he quickly shrugged out of his coat.

When she didn't answer him, he bypassed the closet and threw his coat down on the end of the couch as he headed for the kitchen, calling out for his fiancée again –but he was only met with silence.

He darted over to the stove when he saw smoke rising up from a pot of spaghetti that Bird had started earlier in the day and apparently forgot about. Quickly shutting the flame on the gas stove off, he grabbed the pot up and dropped into the sink and switched on the cold water.

Taking a step back as the hot metal sizzled and scorched from the abrupt temperature change, he looked around the kitchen. Out on the counter was an open jar of pasta sauce and a bag of shredded cheese.

It was as if Bird had put the pasta on to boil and then simply turned and walked out the door.

Walking back up to the sink, he shut the water off and poured the contents of the pan out –shaking his head angrily at the black noodles stuck to the bottom of the pan. Mumbling under his breath he threw the pan into the trashcan and headed for the stairs.

It didn't take him long to find Bird in their bedroom, sitting on the floor in front of their walk-in closet surrounded by boxes and some clothes strewn about.

"Starling?" He asked, stepping closer with a growing look of concern on his face as she sat staring off into the distance, seemingly not even away of his presence.

"Hey…" Harvey breathed, placing a hand on her shoulder and bringing her back to the present with him.

"Oh, hey." She quickly said, scrambling to her feet and looking around at the mess, "I, uh… I didn't know you were coming home early."

"I didn't." He started to say, "Do you even know what time-"

"I put some spaghetti onto boil. You hungry?" She cut him off, trying to walk past him without listening to what he had to say.

"You left the flame on high." He explained, putting his arm in front of her to keep her from walking away, "There no water left in the pan… you can't smell that? The entire house stinks like burnt food."

Sniffing the air, her face twisted up and she nodded in agreement with him, but she still seemed like she was dazed and not entirely there.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." She automatically replied.

He opened his mouth to tell her he didn't believe that for a second, but his voice caught in his throat when he looked down and saw she was clutching the necklace that she'd came home from Arkham with –the one Jerome had made for her.

"What are you doing with that?" He asked, not even giving her a second to answer before his voice raised, "Why didn't you throw it away?"

"I don't know." She answered, "Never got around to it I guess."

"Well, what are you doing with it now?" He pushed, looking back to the mess the room had turned into, "What were you looking for in here?"

"I don't remember."

"Don't lie to me-"

"I'm not!" She yelled, rubbing her forehead with her free hand, "I put the noodles on to boil and I came in here to grab something, but I don't remember what it was." Motioning to the closet she explained, "I knocked the box of stuff I brought home from Arkham off the shelf in there and saw this necklace and then… I guess I lost track of time."

The angry expression on his face softened, but he still had to point out how dangerous it was, "You could have started a fire, you know?"

She nodded but didn't say anything, she'd been so locked away in her thoughts that she hadn't a clue how long she'd been up there with the stove going.

"Don't you think it's strange?" She finally questioned, "Jerome was armed; he had a knife but he didn't even try to defend himself against that Galavan guy."

"What?" Harvey breathed.

"I was right there, Harvey. Standing right there and I saw the look the look on his face when Galavan stabbed him. Jerome looked surprised, like he really never saw it coming…" Bird tried to explain what had been haunting her in the days since the children's hospital benefit.

"He probably didn't see it coming." Harvey dropped his shoulders in exhaustion, "Probably thought no one had it in them to stand up to him."

"No, that's not it." She argued, "I've seen people be caught off guard just before they're killed before, okay? I know what someone looks like when that happens and I'm telling you something is off here. I really don't think Jerome expected Galavan to hurt him… and when Barbara tried to attack Lee and he stopped her, he said something about it not having been ten minutes yet-"

"Starling." He cut her off, his voice gravely with irritation.

In his mind it had been a terrible night for Gotham, but one that they had survived. A night where good triumphed evil and he didn't see a point in trying to pick apart and analyze every second.

"And isn't it also really weird how the only person that got killed, aside from Jerome, was Deputy Mayor Kane?" Bird ignored his protests, "Just think about it. Mayor James is still missing and now with Kane out of the way… they're going to have to hold a new election. If someone wanted to be in a position of power in the city then-"

"Stop it." He pleaded with her.

"I can't!" She exclaimed, "It's all I've been able to think about since it happened."

"Not everything is a conspiracy!" His voice came out so harsh and forceful that she took a step back, feeling like the words had physically hit her.

When he saw the look on her face he apologized, "I'm sorry, but it's the truth."

"You don't know that!" She yelled over the end of his sentence, "Someone framed me for murder, Harvey. Some things are a conspiracy and I'm telling you that something is still wrong, I can feel it."

"Jerome Valeska and Barbara Kean tried to kill you!" He reminded her, his face contorting in disbelief, "Why does it bother you so much that –that maniac was killed?"

She couldn't keep from rolling her eyes and pointing out something she thought was clearly obvious, "Don't you think if they'd really wanted to kill me that I'd be dead? I was nearly defenseless tied down to that wheel."

"Are-are you kidding me?" He scoffed, taking hold of her arm and pushing the sleeve up to show the bandages over the stiches she'd had to get, "I sat right there and watched him work you over with a knife!"

"Doesn't matter." She stubbornly shook her head, "If Jerome had really wanted to kill me he would have."

"This is insane!" He shouted, "I swear to god, it's like we weren't even at the same event that night, because apparently you have a completely different recollection of it!"

"Let go of me." She challenged with narrowed eyes.

He looked down to see he still had an iron grip on her wrist from where he'd grabbed onto her arm moments before. A hold that only grown tighter and more painful for her as his anger escalated; he'd entirely forgotten he'd even had a grip on her.

Immediately he let go and spilled an apology, "I'm sorry, I wasn't even thinking-"

"Yeah…" Bird nodded, cutting him off, "You never meant to hurt me, right?"

His gaze dropped to the floor and Bird glanced around the room before stating, "Me either, you know?"

When his eyes met hers; she clarified, "You walk around here and act like everything I do wrong is to purposely hurt you, but it's not. I never once meant to hurt you."

•••

Pulling to a stop and shutting her car off, Bird leaned back against the headrest and blew out a heavy breath.

Rolling her head to the side she looked at Wayne Manor and tried to muster up the strength to actually go inside.

It had been a few weeks since her brother had asked her to stop by –stating that she needed to see something. When she pushed for details the only answer he'd give was that it concerned their father.

She wasn't entirely sure why she'd been avoiding the trip. Maybe she wasn't ready to learn whatever it was that he had to show her, either way she knew that sooner or later she'd have to face whatever Bruce was waiting to share with her.

With that thought, she pulled the keys from the ignition and threw her car door open with much more force than she needed to use.

Just as she stepped outside her phone started to ring. With a loud groan, she turned around and leaned back into the car to grab her bag out of the passenger seat.

Quickly locating her phone, she tossed her bag back into the seat and stared at the unfamiliar number.

"Hello?" She gruffly answered, as flipped the cellphone open and it put it to her ear.

"Hey, B!" Barbara's always cheery tone greeted her.

Without saying a word, Bird flipped her phone shut.

Almost immediately she received another call from the same number. This time she didn't even bother answering the call, just flipped her phone open and waiting until the call connected before shutting it to hang up on her.

"Everything okay?"

Looking up she saw Jim walking towards her from the house.

"Yeah, why do you ask?" She questioned, glancing over to see where his car was parked and wondered how she'd missed spotting it in the first place.

When her phone rang again, Bird quickly ended the call again and Jim nodded to her phone to signal that's what he was talking about.

She gave a shrug and avoided his eyes as she looked down and shut her cellphone off to detour her friend from trying to call her again.

Stepping closer to where she was, Jim saw the troubled look on her face and questioned, "You and Harvey have a fight?"

"No." Bird lied, her head cocked to the side, "I have other people that I talk to, you know."

Her forehead lining with the realization that –that wasn't exactly the truth anymore. There weren't many people in her life who reached out to her.

A year ago if her phone rang it could have been one of many people calling her, but not now.

Now some of those people were dead; others she hadn't spoken to in months.

A year might only be three hundred and sixty five days, but to Bird it felt like an eternity ago.

"Fair enough." He surrendered, but his eyes narrowed slightly as he watched her.

Hey, listen…" Jim cleared his throat, "I've been meaning to stop by and check on you after everything that happened at the children's hospital fundraiser."

"It's fine." She managed a small smile, but he argued, "It's not. I should have dropped by."

"No." She shook her head, "You probably shouldn't just show up at my house anymore."

"Why?" He questioned, taking a step closer and lowering his voice as he asked, "What's going on?"

"Barbara told Harvey about that time at the hospital when you kissed me." She confessed.

His eyes roamed over her face until his mind finally landed on what to ask next, "And how did Barbara know about that?"

"I told her a while ago…" Bird admitted.

"Why…" He breathed, shaking his head, "Why would you do that?"

"Because she's one of my best friends!" Bird defended, "And because she practically already knew something happened."

"You meant to say: she was one of your best friends." Jim corrected her, "As in past tense; because there's no way after what happened that you'd still consider her a friend, right?"

His eyes dropped down to where she was still clutching her cellphone in her hand.

"It's complicated." Bird replied.

"Complicated?" He disbelievingly repeated back.

"Yes, complicated. She gave me a knife, Jim. I was able to cut myself free because of that and I don't think she wanted me to get hurt that bad. She did step between me and Jerome." Bird seemed lost in her own thoughts as she continued, "And that entire night felt off. I think there's something bigger at play."

Before he could begin to point out the first in a very long list of how that logic was flawed on many levels, Bird asked, "How much do you know about Theo Galavan?"

"Nothing really." He shrugged, "Other than we're lucky he stepped up when he did. He saved Bruce's life."

"I know… but don't you think it's strange how it happened?"

Not giving him a chance to agree or disagree, Bird pointed out, "Theo said something and Jerome just completely let go of my brother and turned to face him. And at that point what reason did that Theo guy actually have to kill Jerome? He could have knocked him down and disarmed him, he didn't have to actually kill him and the look on his face…"

"Hold on." Jim finally got a word in, "What are you saying?"

Bird's eyes locked with his and she wanted to tell him everything that had been haunting her. How the entire night had felt overly staged and how Galavan's theatrics seemed scripted just for the cameras.

She wanted to share with him the things that she'd tried to talk to Harvey about, but he'd shot it down every single time and she didn't miss the way he'd start to look at her like she was crazy whenever another word of conspiracy was spoken.

If Harvey thought she was crazy for thinking along those lines, then Jim probably would too and for the moment it was nice to have at least a few people who didn't act like her being let out of Arkham was an error in someone's judgment.

"Nothing." She chuckled, waving a hand through the air.

"Bird…" He complained, easily able to tell she was holding something back.

"Seriously, it's nothing." She argued, "I don't sleep much anymore and Harvey says I've been watching too many late night documentaries. The history channel has been playing these marathons of shows about-"

"Conspiracies and secret societies." Jim nodded. Catching her stunned expression, he explained, "I don't sleep much either."

"Yeah, well, after being framed for a crime I didn't commit… I don't know, sometimes the world just looks like one big conspiracy." She dismissively said.

But Jim wasn't ready to let it go quite so easily.

"You've got a theory about what happened that night?" He guessed, nodding for her to continue.

"No." She lied, with a tight smile, "I should get going." She turned back towards her car.

"You just got here." He pointed out, but she didn't say anything; simply got in her car and drove off.

He pulled in a deep breath and shook his head.

During his many visits to see her while she was Arkham, he'd noticed small changes in her behavior. Over time she seemed less sure of herself, trusted her own mind less and less and that wasn't the Bird he was used to.

•••

"I'm sorry, boss." One of the guards huffed as he rushed into the room just mere steps behind Bird, "She just walked right in-"

"It's fine." Oswald cut his sentry off, though his eyes never left Bird's face. "Leave us."

Nodding, the man ducked back out of the room and closed the large wood double doors behind him.

"Bird." Oswald greeted, sitting up straighter in the chair at the head of the large table.

A chair that looked just like a throne.

"Oswald." Bird replied, lingering towards the door she'd practically burst through just moments prior.

Her eyes moved to the large selection of foods on the table, a meal that could have easily fed several people, yet he was the only one there.

"A spread fit for a king." She commented, as she walked further into the room.

"I am." He said, his jaw tensing as he watched her walked closer.

She leaned over the table and plucked up one of the dark red grapes from the stem before popping it into her mouth.

"Please, have a seat." He politely gestured to the chair on his right side, but she ignored the nicety and walked past him. Trailing her fingers over the dark red curtains blocking out all traces of sunlight from the hidden windows.

His eyes never strayed as he watched her inspect the room in the mansion he'd claimed.

After the night he'd came to repair things between them and been chased off by a rage filled Harvey Dent, he'd spent nearly a week unable to sleep.

Bird had always found some way to creep into his mind, invade every single waking second and there were times he'd nearly hated her for it.

The first week, in his recollection, had been the hardest. Then his days had been filled with continuing to pick up the pieces of Falcone's empire and convincing the underbosses to follow him.

There were cash reserves to build up, debts to collect and lives to threaten. Along with the near constant struggle to keep hold of the position of power he'd claimed for himself.

Slowly, instead of the incessant thoughts of his best friend, he'd found himself more concerned with foreseeing threats to his post and eliminating them.

Power was all he'd ever desired –and there he sat, the King of Gotham and still found himself nearly rendered breathless in her presence.

It was like a sickness.

Straightening his posture even more, he adjusted his tie and waited for her to turn around and face him once again.

Waiting for her to see him cast in a new light.

He hadn't been an umbrella boy for quite some time now. He was no longer a snitch playing all sides as he desperately tried to claw his way to the top.

No, he wasn't an underling anymore.  
He was a king.

He felt different and he was sure she'd no longer just see her best friend when she looked at him.

"Falcone wanted me to take his place." Bird finally said, turning to look at him with her arms crossed over her chest; reverting back a childlike stance of seeing another kid with a shinier toy.

"I beg your pardon?" Oswald somehow stammered, entirely thrown from her statement.

He'd been sitting there for several minutes imagining every single possibility of what she'd say to him, playing both parts of the conversation inside his mind.

But in no version had she said anything close to that.

"He wanted me to have the empire he'd built." She explained.

Reaching for his glass of vintage red wine, Oswald started to drink so fast that it ran from the corners of his mouth.

"I could have turned on you at any point." Bird shook her head as she spoke, "It would have been so easy and you never would have seen it coming-"

Her sentence abruptly cut off when she jumped in response to Oswald slamming his now empty glass of wine down so hard that it shattered against the table.

"Have you only come to insult me?" He nearly screamed at her as he scrambled up to his feet and shook the glass shards from his hand. Not even aware of the drops of blood that fell from several cuts, "After all this time?"

"I'm not insulting you!" She yelled back, immediately angered at him. "I came here because this could have been mine so easily. I'm a Falcone and Wayne –both by blood. This city could have been mine."

"Yes!" Oswald tossed his arms out to either side, "Look around Bird. Marvel at what could have been –had you made the right decision when the time came."

The pair stared at each one another –each seeing the other painted in shades of raged red.  
Both feeling insulted and slighted by the other.

"Always so quick to anger." Bird pointed out, knowing she could have very well been speaking of herself, "Even when you finally got everything you ever wanted."

"How should I react?" He practically spat.

He'd been waiting for months for her to turn up at his door step, a broken and wounded thing that had nowhere else to turn. And from the look on her face when she'd first walked in, that's exactly where he thought this was headed.

Bird's eyebrows knotted and her jaw was clenched so tight it was painful.  
She wasn't sure why she'd even came there in the first place. On the drive there she'd worked out a conversation in her head of how she'd find out why he never once tried to help her.

All she wanted to know was how he could so easily turn a blind eye to her pain and suffering when she'd been so convinced they'd always have each to depend on.

"You don't get it!" She suddenly screamed, the outburst catching him entirely off guard with the shrill tone in her voice causing him to cringe.

The door to the room opened and one of his henchman looked in to make sure that he was okay and not in any danger, but Oswald picked the half-empty wine bottle up from the table and hurled at the door with the command, "Leave us alone!"

As the door was quickly slammed shut both Oswald and Bird took a moment to try and compose themselves from the screaming match neither of them had expected the day to result in.

"I'm saying that –that throne could have been mine-"

"But you chose Harvey Dent-"

"I chose you." Bird cut him off. "That's what you don't get, Oswald. I see it now. All you ever really cared about was power. Power that apparently was my birthright, but instead I stuck by you. I put my neck on the line for you over and over, cleaned up one mess after another and came running every single time you called. I did everything I could to make sure that you made it to the top."

"I wanted you here." He pointed out, with an arched brow, "You were the one who said you wanted something different."

Pinning her eyes shut, she pulled in a few deep breaths before slowly walking over and sitting down at the table.

"That's right." She conceded, "But you knew what happened to me, Oswald. I sat in Arkham Asylum for months waiting on you to do something –to use your precious power to pull the right strings and help me."

"And I sat here for those months waiting on you to ask." He argued with her, sitting back down in his own chair and watching her.

"Boy…" Bird breathed with a low whistle, "What a mess you'd have ended up in if I'd always waited to help you until you asked for it."

"You walked away." Oswald reminded her.

"But you knew." Bird helplessly breathed as she finally looked back at him, "You are the only one who knew just how much being locked up as a teenager affected me. Don't you remember that? And that place was a spa compared to Arkham."

His breath caught in his throat as he watched her and her words sunk in.

"I guess I'm here because I need to know how my very best friend could just turn the other cheek and let something like that happen to me." Bird admitted.

"You speak as though my intention was to watch you suffer." Oswald said, his eyes falling to the engagement ring on her finger and he realized despite her showing up there –she was still engaged.

Unacceptable, the thought to himself, but now was his chance to ensure that wouldn't last for much longer.

"My apologies Bird, but I was led to believe that you no longer had a place in your new life for someone like me…" Oswald said, "After being turned away from your door that night-"

"What night?" Bird asked, "What are you talking about?"

"I came to see you months ago… right after we'd won the war and Fish was dead." Oswald explained, "I showed up at your door; heart on my sleeve, to tell you how I'd been foolish to speak of us parting ways for good. I came to assure you of just how important you were –that you still are to me and I was so cruelly turned away."

Seeing the confused expression on her face continue to grow, he could barely contain his excitement.

"You had no idea?" He feigned shock, "That Harvey Dent nearly chased me down the sidewalk away from your house?"

"No." Bird said, her jaw tensed, "I thought after you killed Fish and Falcone fled town that you'd decided you didn't need me anymore."

"Nothing could be further from the truth." Oswald explained, recalling the night in question to mind, "When I insisted upon seeing you, your lover turned me away –he said that you were free of your old life and wished to be free of me."

Bird continued to watch him speak, but found herself just staring at his mouth instead of hearing the words being spoken now.

Harvey had sat there with her for weeks, listening to how upset she was that Oswald had so easily tossed her to the side and had never once said anything about him coming by their house.

"Bird?" Oswald finally asked when a few minutes of her staring blankly at him had passed.

Wordless, she rose to her feet.  
Her movements were choppy; almost mechanical as she took her time pushing her chair back up to the table and turning to leave –she couldn't even hear him calling after her.

•••

"Where have you been?" Harvey asked as he met Bird at the door, "I've been trying to call you for close to an hour."

Her eyes traveled over his face as her mouth hung open, not able to comprehend how things went so wrong between them.

For the past few weeks she'd been sure that their problems didn't start until she'd been framed for murder and then continued to roll steadily downhill after Arkham, but it was slowly dawning on her things hadn't been going well between from for quite some time.

Deep down she figured that she'd known it all along.  
After all, she'd told him from the beginning that they were doomed, but with every fight they managed to resolve and every roadblock they'd found their way around, she'd convinced herself that maybe they really had what it took to make.

"Harvey." She breathed, "We need to talk-"

Her eyebrows lowering as she watched him quickly shrug on his coat, "Where are you going?"

"Wayne Manor, that's what I've been trying to tell you." He explained, taking the car keys from her hand, "Alfred called, he said you need to come there right away."

"Why?" Bird asked, "Is Bruce okay?"

"I don't know." Harvey admitted, opening the door and motioning for her to go through, "He wouldn't tell me anything –other than its urgent and that he couldn't reach you."

"I shut my phone off." Bird admitted, turning to watch as Harvey locked their front door behind them.

"I noticed." He muttered under his breath, as they walked to her car.

The drive to her family's home was in mostly silence. Aside from Harvey pointing out that he thought she'd said she was going by Wayne Manor when she left the house earlier that day, but she didn't answer him.

She couldn't find the strength to start the conversation that they needed to have, not while they were in the car rushing to find out what was going on.  
She couldn't even find it in her to make up a lie to silence his questions for the moment.

As he pulled to a stop outside of the house and shut the car off, he flung his door open but stopped when she sat perfectly still in the passenger seat staring ahead.

"Starling?" He questioned, reaching over and taking her hand in his, "I'm sure your brother is fine."

Her head dropped forward and she looked down to their connected hands but didn't say anything.

"Whatever it is, we'll deal with it." He assured her, leaning down to try and catch her line of sight, "We'll get through it together; like we always do."

His face twisted with concern when she finally looked at him, but her eyes looked almost glassy.  
There was an emptiness in her gaze that was unsettling.

"Ready?" He asked, rubbing this thumb over the back of her hand.

"Ready." She repeated back, but still made no attempt to actually get out of the car.

It wasn't until he got out and crossed over to her side of the car and opened her door that she finally moved, though as they walked hand-in-hand to the front door, Harvey felt like he had to drag her along with him.

"Lady Wayne!" Alfred exclaimed as Bird and Harvey appeared in the doorway of the study, he quickly stood up from where he was sitting and stammered, "We-we've been trying to reach you."

"Mhmm…" Bird hummed, not quite able to get her tongue to form words just yet.  
Since leaving Oswald earlier, time had seemed to just blur into one long never ending block that she was trapped in.

"Starling." Bruce smiled, looking up from where he was sitting on one of the couches.

Internally she breathed a sigh of relief at seeing he was not only safe, but also seemed happy. Externally, she barely even appeared to notice him.

Also relieved that Bruce was alright, Harvey's eyes feel the opposite couch where he could see the back of a woman with brunette hair was sitting and he questioned, "What's going on?"

His eyes quickly fell down to where Bird's grip on his hand grew painfully tight; enough so that it nearly brought him to his knees.

The woman stood and turned around, she glanced between them before her teary eyes focused on Bird and she breathed, "You're so grown up…" She cleared her throat, feeling like there was a million things she needed to say, but couldn't even pick one to start with.

Looking between them, Alfred said, "Lady Wayne, this is Lilith-"

"I know who she is." Bird finally found her voice. Which came out surprisingly steady considering she still had an iron tight grip on Harvey's hand at her side, "She's my mother."

"I guess this makes the introductions a bit smoother." She tried to lighten the moment, "I wasn't sure how much you knew about me… or if you even knew of me at all."  
Her voice shook and she nervously wrung hands as she questioned, "Thomas told you?"

Swatting a tear from her cheek, she didn't get much time to answer before repeating, "My god… you're so grown up." Looking between Bird's emotionless expression and the stunned look on Harvey's face she shook her head in disbelief, "And engaged…"

Bird glanced around the room as all eyes were now on her.  
Everyone waiting for her reaction.

She wasn't sure how to react, she was just barely sure this was real and not one of the nightmares she'd been having for months where her mom showed up only to reveal eyes as black as coal and demonic features.

She had to bite down on the side of her tongue to keep from asking everyone else if they saw Lilith too as she carefully advanced towards her now adult daughter.

"I don't want to push things… but I really just want to give you a hug."

"I think you'd better just stay where you are." Bird finally found her voice as she eyed the woman suspiciously.

"Lilith." Alfred cleared his throat, "Perhaps-"

"Lily." She corrected him, glancing over her shoulder and cutting him off, "Please, call me Lily."

"Lily." He accepted with a nod, "Perhaps you and Lady Wayne would like appreciate some time alone. This is a lot to process, I'm sure."  
His eyes cut over to where Bird looked almost sickly pale with an unreadable look in her eyes.

"I would love that." She warmly smiled, looking to Bird and hastily adding, "If you're comfortable with that, of course?"

Wordless, Bird let go of Harvey's hand and crossed the room sitting down on one of the couches and proved unable to answer Bruce when he quietly asked if she was okay.

Once they were left alone, Lily sat down on the opposite couch and watched her daughter with tears glistening in her eyes .

"I'm not sure what to say." She breathed, "I'm told you like to go by the name Bird?"

"Yeah." Bird nodded, avoiding Lily's eyes as she poured herself a glass of ice water from the pitcher on the coffee table and drank it down so fast it took a few seconds to get the feeling back in her throat.

All her life she'd imagined meeting her birth mother; as a little girl she'd even kept a small notebook where she'd jot down questions she had. Only now –facing the woman who gave birth to her over twenty years ago left her unable to form a clear thought, let alone think of what to say.

"Why are you here?" Bird stammered, "Do you want money or something?"

"What?" Lily exclaimed, seeming hurt from the insinuation, "God, no. I'm here because… well, because I've missed over two decades of my daughter's life and I didn't want a third to slip by."

"Slip by?" Bird repeated back, "Is that what time does after you leave a tiny, entirely defenseless infant at a church –with nothing, not even a name? You flee town and time just… slips by."

"I thought about you every single day." Lily asserted, "I wasn't in a good place back then. My head was a mess and I had no idea what I wanted or needed. All I knew was that I couldn't stay in the situation I was in and that I wanted something better for you-"

"Like being starved and beaten in foster homes and orphanages?"

Lily's eyes fell to the floor, a bitter taste lingered on her tongue and shame took over her expression.

There weren't enough words on earth to form an apology for the chain of events her choices had put into place so long ago.  
It was impossible to even try.

"I just don't get it." Bird admitted, not bothering to brush the hair aside that had fell into her face while she near violently shook her head back and forth, "If you wanted away from Falcone bad enough –fine, but why even take me with you if you didn't want me either?"

"It's not that I didn't want you." She softly sighed, looking up at Bird from under her dark coated lashes, "But I couldn't leave you there to grow up being the daughter of a mafia crime boss –what kind of life would that have been? Could you just imagine the amount of danger you would have been solely because of who your father was? And what would growing up in organized crime have turned you into as a person?"

"I think I'd have turned out fine." Bird stubbornly argued

"You don't know Carmine Falcone." Lily stressed.

"Oh, but I do." She argued, "I've known him for years –just didn't know he was my father until recently."

"Not the way I know him." She countered, shaking her head, "Trust me, the farther away from him you were –the better."

"Then why not have just brought me here?" Bird questioned, looking around the room.

"I can see why you'd wonder that." Lily sympathized, "But money isn't everything-"

"You're right, it's not." Bird cut her off, "But it does keep food on the table and the heat on in the winter. You know, money buys the creature comforts that I spent the first five years of my life without."

Lily looked at her daughter, their near matching brown eyes locking in an intense stare.

When Bird had heard how her mother had been treated by her family, she'd felt bad for her –or at least felt some sympathy for the version of her that she'd formed in her head.

From what Falcone had told her and what she'd read in the letter from her father, Bird had built an idea of the woman who'd gave birth to her. She'd pictured a frail person clinging to the brink of sanity and not able to care for herself –let alone for anyone else.

But any sympathy and understanding she'd grown to have for her had vanished the moment she'd met her in person.

She'd stood there in a charcoal tinted form fitting dress and black heels that raised her at least four inches in height above Bird. Her dark hair looked like she'd just stepped out of a salon after an expensive blow out and Bird gathered the pearls around her neck had to cost a pretty penny –not to mention the feathery wisps of Chanel N°5 perfume in the air around her.

Lily carried herself and spoke in such a way that you'd never guess she grew up spending more days locked in an asylum than she did in her own house.

Maybe seeing how tall she was able to stand after everything he'd been though was something that Bird should have been happy to see –but instead she found it unsettling.

Or maybe Bird hadn't made near as much peace with where she came from as she'd thought. The bitter taste in her mouth was enough to thoroughly choke on.

"I don't blame you for being angry." Lily swallowed as she spoke, "I had so many second thoughts about contacting you after so many years. You're an adult and you've got your own life now… clearly you managed this long without me and I wasn't even sure you'd have any desire to meet me."

"Then why are you here?" She gruffly asked.

"For me." She admitted with a slight shrug, "I wanted to know my daughter."

Bird's eyes narrowed as she watched Lily blink back some tears as she stared off into the flames dancing in the fireplace. Slowly, she turned back to her adult daughter and started to say, "Maybe one day when you have a child of your own, you'll understand-"

"Don't do that." Bird cut her sentence short, "Don't make it sound like something I can't understand because I'm not a parent –you're not a parent either."

"I carried you inside of me for nine months." Lily pointed out, placing her hand over her stomach, "It's my blood that runs through your veins."

"My parents are dead." Bird loudly spoke over her, "They were murdered –last year actually."

"Fine." Lily raised a hand to silence her and show she didn't mean for anything she'd said to be taken offensively, "You may not want to claim me as your mother, but that doesn't change anything for me. You are still my daughter and all I'm asking for is a chance to get to make up some of that lost time-"

"I already had a mom." Bird said in a less than steady tone, "She helped me with my homework and taught me how to bake, took care of me when I was sick. Somehow she could always make the bad days feel a little less dark –and with me that was no easy task, because I didn't just have sad days. No, I had black days where I couldn't even find the strength to get out of bed and you know what? She never gave up on me, never once made me feel like I was burden."

Reaching up, Bird swatted the tear away that had started to roll down her cheek, "She was amazing and I wasn't very good to her. So Lily, whatever it is you're looking to build here-" Bird motioned between them, "I don't want any part of it. Martha Wayne set the bar pretty high as far as moms go and there's no way you could come close to measuring up."

"Sorry to interrupt." Alfred apologized as he tapped with his knuckles on the open door while balancing a tray in the other hand, "I made some tea."

"Thank you, Alfred." Bird managed a smile in his direction as she got to her feet, "But Lily was just leaving."

"So soon?" He questioned, setting the tray down on an end table and looking between them.

Clearing her throat, Lily stood up nodding in agreement as she picked her coat up from the back of the couch and laid it over her arm before gathering her purse.

Pulling a small notepad out of it, she scribbled her phone number down and handed it to Bird, "I have no intention of leaving Gotham again. So I'll be here whenever you're ready to talk."  
Looking her over, she shook her head, "I still can't get over how grown up you are. So beautiful."

"It was nice to meet you, Alfred." Lily politely said, pausing at the doorway, "Give Bruce my best."

Alfred nodded, and wished her a goodnight as she left. Normally, he'd have shown her out, but he was more concerned about Bird when she went over and stood staring into the fire place.

"Lady Wayne?" He questioned, stepping closer to her.

"I don't trust her." Bird admitted, "If she comes back I don't want her left alone with Bruce."

"She is his family." Alfred pointed out, "Truth be told, he seemed rather thrilled to meet her."

"He's not good at reading people." Bird argued, remembering back to when he'd invited Alfred's war buddy Reggie to stay at the manor and Alfred had nearly been killed.  
Finally looking over at him she questioned, "There's something off about her just showing up, isn't there?"

When he stayed quiet, Bird raised her eyebrows expectantly, "I'm telling you we can't trust her."

"So we should what?" Alfred pushed back, "Slam the door in her face. Turn her away without the benefit of the doubt? I can't imagine how hard this must be for you… but most people in your shoes never get the opportunity to see exactly where they came from. Are you sure you want to shut it all down before it even begins?"

"My parents are dead." Bird repeated what she'd said to Lily earlier.

"Right you are." Alfred nodded, "But if they weren't… if your dear ole' dad was still alive, do you think he'd write her off so fast?"

"I don't know." She shrugged, "But I don't think he'd exactly open the doors to her after so long."

"Are you sure about that? In the times he spoke of her, I could see regret and guilt on his face-"

"What?" She gasped, taking a step back away from him.

"You knew?" Bird stammered out, her breathing growing unsteady, "You knew about her?"

He swallowed hard at the look of pain on her face, "I did." He admitted.

"You knew this whole time and you never told me!" She yelled, seeming startled by her own outburst.

"It wasn't my place to do so." He explained.

"Even after they died?" She scoffed.

Alfred diverted his eyes to the flames burning bright in the hearth. Having known Bird for the majority of her life, he was never sure how she'd take being handed life changing news and he'd never wanted to be responsible for sending her on a downward spiral.

"Is everything okay?" Bruce asked as he joined them after hearing his sister yelling.

"No." Bird practically spat out. "Everything is not okay."

"Lady Wayne-" Alfred took a step forward, but she quickly backed up. Betrayal showed heavy on her face as she shook her head at him.

"Starling?" Bruce asked, his voice quiet and almost feeble.

"Where's Harvey?" Bird asked, "He's got my keys and I have to get out of this place."

•••

"Why now?" Bird repeated, glancing over to the open bathroom door as she listened to the water in the sink running, "After all this time…"

Poking his head out of the bathroom, Harvey's voice was muffled from the toothpaste and toothbrush as he was in the middle of brushing his teeth, "I don't know." He shrugged, "Maybe has something to do with the fact that Falcone is out of the picture."

"Exactly!" Bird nodded, as she started to pull the decorative pillows off their bed and throw them onto the window seat, "And that's suspicious! Don Falcone was the only person who actually knew her and she waits until he's gone before coming back."

Spitting toothpaste out into the sink, Harvey called out, "I was thinking more along the terms of maybe she finally felt safe enough to return with him gone."

"That's one way to look at it." She mumbled under her breath as she started to pull the sheet and comforter down from the made bed.

"The man was a monster, Starling." Harvey said, causing her to jump. She hadn't heard him come up behind her.

"Falcone was a criminal –a mobster… but he wasn't a monster."

"Are you really going to argue with me about this?" He questioned, "After everything he did?"

Her gaze fell to the floor and she bit down on the inside of her cheek.  
From where Harvey had been standing, she was sure that Falcone could have easily been seen as some sort of monster, but she'd known differently.

There were times she'd hated him –including times she was ready to kill the mafia don, but she'd also seen a different side to him.

His methods might have been questionable and his way of going about things a little outdated, but when they'd finally sat down to talk and he told her how everything he'd done –no matter how harsh it seemed, had been to try and make her stronger, she believed him.

In his own way, however misguided it may have been, he had tried to do right by her.

"It's late." Harvey finally sighed, leaning down some to catch her line of sight, "It's been an incredibly long day. Let's get some sleep and we'll figure things out tomorrow, okay?"

With that, he leaned in to kiss her, but Bird turned her head and he got her cheek instead.

Even though her encounter with Oswald earlier that day had gotten pushed to the back of her mind, she hadn't forgotten it.

"What?" He asked, his forehead lining as he waited on an explanation.

"It's just been a long day." She shrugged, knowing they'd have to talk about what he did eventually, but she didn't have even an ounce of the strength to start such a conversation.

Pulling in a deep breath, she prepared for him to push her. He could always tell when something was bothering her, usually could pick up on when she was lying to him.

"We'll figure things out tomorrow." He assured her as he rubbed comforting hands up and down her arms, before walking past her to get to his side of the bed.

Her brows knotted as she turned her head to follow him.  
As much as she didn't want to fight with him, the fact that he didn't want to push the issue left a dull ache inside her chest and left her wondering how much he still cared about her –if he still did at all.

Her bare feet lightly padded on the hardwood floor as she turned around and watched him get into their bed.

Months ago, he wouldn't have been able to sleep if the thought something was wrong between them. She still remembered him showing up at her apartment in the middle of the night in pajamas when he couldn't sleep because she angry with him.

"You coming to bed?" He asked, as she continued to stand there and stare at him.

Silently, she nodded and shut the lamp on her bedside table off.  
As she crawled into the bed, he turned and put his back to her and she laid her head down on her pillows and helplessly stared at his form in the glow the streetlights and moon cast through the curtains.

She wasn't sure how long she'd laid there staring at his back –whether it had been hours or mere minutes that passed since they'd laid down, before she whispered, "Harvey?"

"Hmm?" He groggily answered.

"Do you think we really ever had a shot at making this work?" She said so softly her voice was barely audible over the sounds of traffic and sirens in the near distance.

"What?" He questioned, turning over to face her, "What are you talking about?"

"I do." Her voice started to grow hoarse, "Maybe if I'd never got sent away to Arkham, you know? Or maybe if we'd just packed up and left Gotham when you wanted to…I think we might have actually been able to pull it off."

He opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

He wanted to tell her that it wasn't over; wanted to promise that they'd find a way out of the mess their relationship had turned into –just as badly as she wanted to blame her heartache on lack of sleep and an extremely trying day.

But there was a feeling of defeat hanging heavy in the silence that seemed to fill up the space between them.

His eyes burned as he reached out and took her hand in his, both of them aware that their fingers didn't even seem to fit together like they used to.

There was a time that he'd promised her that no matter how dark the night got –the sun would always rise again. No matter what storm came their way, they could weather it as long as they were together.  
A time that now felt lifetimes ago between two very different people then they were now.

Harvey brought her hand up to his mouth and placed a gentle kiss to her soft skin as he watched a tear roll down the side of Bird's face and start to soak into the pillowcase.

•••

* * *

 **A/N – So, this was a tough chapter to write. It took a lot out of me and I hope it was difficult to read –difficult in a good way of course. :P**

 **Thanks to Amelia, Shadow knight1121, Maddie Rose, chodofaggins, Katniss789, Land of a billion lights, xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, southernbelle, MzzLightwood, ithinkwerefree, SmellYourScentForMiles, Miss E Charlotte, and to Helena for reviewing since the last update!**

 **Things aren't looking good for Bird and Harvey and her mom showed up at an awfully suspicious time… but Oswald made an appearance this chapter!**

 **How is everyone liking** **Wasteland so far?**


	6. I Loved You Dangerously

**VI**

" _Maybe you who condemn me are in greater fear than I who am condemned."_ _― Giordano Bruno_

* * *

•••

Bird sat on a couch in the study of Wayne Manor, mindlessly passing her engagement ring back and forth between her hands as she stared at the spot on the opposite couch where her birth mother had once sat.

It had been over a week since she'd met Lily and to her knowledge; the woman who claimed, with tears in her eyes, that all she wanted to do was get to know her daughter –hadn't reached out to her again.

Of course, there had been more than a few to her cellphone from numbers that she didn't recognize, but she'd not answered them thinking it was more than likely Barbara Kean calling her again; acting as if nothing was wrong between them.

She couldn't help but to think of the irony of it all.  
As a child all she'd wanted was to meet her biological parents and learn about where she came from –then as an adult she met both of them and found herself wishing she'd never known the truth.

Once you know something, you can't go back –something she'd learned long ago and that still rang true.

"Starling." Bruce greeted as he entered the room and saw his older sister.

His cheeks were tinted red and his hair was messy along with noticeable sweat stains on the oversized gray sweatshirt she was wearing.

"Still training with Alfred?" She guessed as she stood up.

"Yes." He nodded, proudly adding, "I'm improving."

She offered up a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

"I was starting to think you weren't coming by." He admitted. She'd ignored him the last several times he'd tried to call her.

"I've been dealing with a lot lately." She vaguely shrugged.

Bruce looked down to where she was still passing her ring between her hands. His eyebrows lowered, "Is everything okay?"

Quickly sliding the ring back onto her finger, she lied, "Yeah, things are great."

Before he had the chance to question her more about it or call out the lie he'd easily spotted, Bird changed the subject, "You said you needed to show me something… about dad."

A smug smile toyed at the corner of his lips when he reminded her, "You remember when I went to Wayne Enterprises and Lucius Fox told me how dad was a stoic, that he kept his best self hidden?"

"Yep." Bird remembered, "Then you started destroying this room looking for secrets."

"I found something." He beamed, as he picked a book up off the desk and it flipped it open to show the pages had been hollowed out to create a perfect hiding spot for a small remote.

Walking over to him, she pulled the black remote from its hiding spot and looked at her brother with an expectant expression, "What does it do?"

"Push the button."

Doing as she was told, Bird firmly pressed down on the square center button. Within seconds music started playing, she looked around the room and her face contorted as she realized, "This was the song he was always listening to when he was working-"

"When he was in here with the door locked." Bruce reminded her, as he turned and stared at the fireplace.

Following his line of sight, her own eyes widened as a loud rumbling sound echoed through the room just seconds before the entire fireplace started to slide back into the wall, revealing a stone archway off to the side.

"What the…" She muttered under her breath.

"Told you I found something." Bruce reminded her.

Laying the remote down on the desk, Bird crossed the room and looked through the archway to see an old set of stairs leading down into darkness.

"Where do these lead?" Bird questioned, "Some kind of cave under the house?"

Bruce nodded, "There's a room down there with a computer. Alfred found some weapons…" His voice trailed off when Bird started down the stairs without bothering to listen to his answer for her questions.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Bird stepped around a metal door that appeared to have been blown there by some kind of explosion.  
Glancing over her shoulder to her younger brother, she asked, "What happened down here? It looks like a bomb went off."

Nodding to the now open doorway into the room, Bruce explained, "The room was sealed."

"So you and Alfred set a bomb off –under the house?"

"It was the only way in." He defended, "I couldn't figure out the code for the keypad."

Stepping over some rubble, Bruce went into the room and flipped the switch on the wall to turn on the few lamps there.

Walking in behind him, Bird's eyes scanned over everything that their father had kept hidden under the manor.

There were old metal and wood file cabinets, a bullet proof vest on a stand with two bullet slugs still lodged in it, there was some medical equipment –including a metal I.V stand and a few bags of clear fluids.

Bird walked over to a small refrigerator with a clear glass door when she spotted bags of what appeared to be blood on the shelves inside.  
Opening the glass door, she pulled out a bag of the blood and read the label before guessing, "These are all dad's blood type?"

"Yes." Bruce nodded, his eyes falling to the discolored stains from blood on the cement floor towards the entrance to the room.

Returning the blood bag to its spot and shutting the door back, Bird looked to the large desk where a computer sat with different size monitors.

"What the hell was he doing down here?" Bird demanded to know.

"That's what I'm trying to figure out." Bruce explained. Nodding to where the modem of the computer had been badly broken he said, "This computer has to hold the answers."

"Probably so…" She breathed, "Too bad it looks like someone took a hammer to it."

"Alfred did."

"He what?" Bird nearly stuttered.

"He was trying to protect me." Bruce quietly explained, trying not to hold onto the anger he'd felt when it happened, "He said whatever is on the computer is probably what got our parents killed and he wasn't going to watch me suffer the same fate."

Bird's eyebrows arched at his words. Any other time she'd have probably agreed with what Alfred did to protect her brother –only at the moment she was still upset with their butler for keeping the secret about knowing who her mom was.

Anger seeped into her expression, "I'd probably have fired him."

"Yes, well, that's exactly what happened. Isn't it?" Alfred said, making his presence known to the siblings. Nodding to Bird, he greeted, "Nice of you to drop by, Lady Wayne."

"I was wrong for doing so." Bruce spoke up on his firing of Alfred, "We've moved past it."

"You fired Alfred?" Bird exclaimed, shooting her brother a look and pointing out, "You do realize with him out of the picture –you'd be in my charge, right?"

"I-" He started to say, but she didn't let him speak when she added, "Which can't happen. I cannot have a kid right now."

Immediately offended, Bruce argued, "I'm not a child."

"Yes you are." Bird loudly spoke over him.

"Either way!" Alfred yelled, getting their attention, "It's not happening any time soon; no need for you both to be fighting over it."

"Mr. Fox has been working on repairing the computer." Bruce finally pointed out after several moments of loaded silence passed.

"Can we trust him?" Bird asked.

"Yes." Bruce confidently answered.

"His intentions seem honest." Alfred agreed, looking between them he stated, "I was just about to whip up some lunch. Lady Wayne, will you be staying?"

"No." She quickly answered, before giving it some more thought and realizing she wasn't ready to go home yet. "I was going to go out for lunch." Directing her attention to her brother she asked, "Wanna come?"

"Really?" He asked, with a smile. Being invited to go anywhere with Bird was a rarity.

"Yes, really." She chuckled.

"I'll go and change." He announced, quickly heading for the door of the room to get out of the sweaty clothes he'd been training in.

"Lady Wayne-" Alfred started to say once they were alone, but Bird cut him off, "Has Bruce had anymore contact with Lily?"

"I know you're angry with me." He sighed.

"You didn't answer my question." Bird coldly said without even looking at him.

In the years since she'd moved out of Wayne Manor, he'd somehow forgotten what it was like to be on the receiving end of her bouts of anger.

He could still so clearly remember a time when she was just barely a teenager and he'd went into her room to tidy up since keeping things neat and clean always seemed to be one of the last things on her mind –he thought he'd been careful not to move many of her possessions around took care to only throw out trash and food she had lying around.

Needless to say, when she'd went back into her room and noticed the changes and missing items, she'd spent a week trying to convince her dad to fire him and went for nearly two months without speaking a single word to Alfred again.

"Yes." He finally answered, "He invited her over for dinner earlier this week."

Spinning in place, Bird crossed her arms over her chest and stared him down, "I specifically told you I didn't want Bruce to have contact with her."

"You did." Alfred simply agreed.

"Well?" Bird loudly said, tossing her arms out to either side, waiting for his explanation.

"Well, what?" He feigned innocence; knowing that she was expecting him to explain himself.

"I don't trust her!" Bird yelled at him.

"Master Bruce seems to feel differently on the matter."

"Alfred!" Bird rubbed her forehead, feeling exhausted from the encounter, "I told you not to let him-"

"Right, you did." He interrupted, "But I don't work for you, now do I?"

"Excuse me…" Bird tripped over her own tongue.

"Lady Wayne, you moved out of your family's home the very day you turned eighteen. When your parents died -their wishes were for me to be Master Bruce's guardian." Alfred reminded her.

"Then do your job!" Bird cried out, "Protect him, keep him safe and keep people that we don't know out of the damn house."

"Yell at me all you want." Alfred replied, straightening his posture and crossing his arms behind his back in his usual stance, "But the truth is you're angry with me because I didn't tell you about your mum, which I already explained my reasoning for. If you thought for a second, Lady Wayne, for even a single second that I was incapable of protecting your brother or doubted my intentions to do so –I imagine we'd be having it out in a court room instead of this bloody underground cave!"

Lowering his voice back down to an acceptable speaking volume he added, "So let's not turn this into something it's not, hmm?"

Without another word to him, Bird breezed out of the room and took the stairs nearly two at a time to get out of there.

"Ready?" She called out as she spotted her brother.

"Ready." He repeated back, turning to follow his sister when she walked past him. "Where are we eating?"

"I don't know. Bird shrugged, "What do you want?"

"Pizza." Bruce answered just as they reached the front door.

"Pizza it is." Bird couldn't help but laugh.  
Nearly every time she'd taken him out to get something to eat, he always wanted pizza. It might have been one of the only things he had in common with other teenagers his age –they somehow never tired of it.

Bird pulled the driver's side door open to get into her car, but stopped when she saw Bruce starting to get into the backseat.

"What are you doing?" Her eyebrows raised.

When he gave her a confused expression, she asked, "Do I look like Alfred?"

"What?" Bruce questioned, "No…"

"Do I look a chauffeur then?"

"No…"

"Then get into the front seat, Bruce." She said, cocking her head to the side as she watched him.

His confused look faded and he let out a small laugh as he shut the back door to the car, finally understanding what she'd been getting at.

•••

"Alfred told me that you had dinner with Lily earlier this week." Bird struck up a conversation with her brother as they sat in the pizza parlor sharing an order of breadsticks while waiting on their pizza to finish baking.

"I'm not sure what exactly to call her." He admitted, swiping a breadstick through the cup of cheese sauce and then through the one with pizza sauce, "Should I call her my aunt? Aunt Lily?"

"Just because that's technically what she is –doesn't mean you have to call her that if you don't want to." Bird explained, following the same order with the dipping sauces for her breadstick that her brother had.

"That's pretty much what she told me." He explained, "That I could just call her Lily if I'm not comfortable with anything else."

Bird roughly bit the end off of the breadstick she'd swiped through the cheese and pizza sauces.  
How dare this woman show up out of the blue and start trying to weasel her way into the family after all this time. Saying all the right things and apparently getting Bruce to start trusting her.

"She told me that you didn't show much interest in getting to know her." Bruce said, "She seemed upset."

"Oh, poor thing." Bird couldn't bite her tongue any longer, "Poor Lily, how awful it must be that the baby she abandoned over twenty years ago doesn't want anything to do with her."

Bruce stopped chewing the bite of food in his mouth at her words. The bitterness and anger in her tone reminded him of when she used to live at home.  
After she'd moved out, he wasn't sure what had happened, but the times she'd came around she seemed much more at peace then when she'd been living there.

Having her birthmother come back into the picture was seeming to cause Bird to revert back into the teenager who'd been so filled with hate and resentment that she could suck the life out of the entire manor with a single breath.

"She seems genuine." Bruce commented after he swallowed down the bite of food.

"The timing doesn't seem strange to you?" She raised her brows, "The only people who knew her are gone, Bruce."

"I guess it is a little suspicious." He finally agreed, before asking, "You don't think you'll regret not getting to know her?"

"I don't want to talk about Lily anymore." Bird stubbornly said with a tight smile and Bruce noted was just barely in control of her emotions.

Their pizza had only just been delivered to their table when Bruce pulled a folded up piece of paper from his pocket and admitted, "I found something else in the room downstairs. It was propped up on the keyboard of the computer."

Bird's mind immediately went to the letter she'd received after her parents had been killed and she guessed, "From dad?"

Taking a drink from his glass, Bruce nodded as he stared down to his father's handwriting.

"What does it say?" She asked him with a bite of pizza in her mouth.

"A lot." He answered, "The code to that room was my name."

Bird couldn't help but laugh, "You bombed the door off of a room that your name was the security code too?"

"I thought I'd tried everything!" He defended with a little laugh of his own, "I tried all of our birthdays, and their anniversary. I even tried all of dad's favorite authors and…" He gave a shrug, "I just never thought it would be something so simple."

"May I see it?" Bird asked, holding her hand out.

With a nod, Bruce folded the note back up and placed it in her hand.

 _"Dear Bruce, these last weeks I begin to feel very mortal, which prompts this note to you. Perhaps I'm being paranoid. I hope so. In any case, if you're reading this, then I'm dead, and you figured out that the entry code is... BRUCE. I'm sorry I had to hide this part of my life from you, because this place only exists because of you and your sister. Becoming a father made me want to be a better man, and I started asking hard questions about the family business._  
 _So here we are. As I write this, you're 12 and a fine, good-hearted boy. So I'm sure you'll be a fine, good-hearted man. But that's all I know. I don't know what happened to me or your mother, I don't know what path your sister has chosen, or how life has turned out for you. I don't even know how old you are. So I'll resist giving you much fatherly advice. Only this: You can't have both happiness and the truth. You have to choose. I beg of you, my son, please choose happiness. Unless... unless you feel a calling. A true calling."_

"What do you think it means?" Bruce questioned, as he took a bite from his slice of pizza and watched as his older sister read over the letter his father had left him. He took a drink of his soda and waited for her to answer him.

Folding it up and sliding it back over to him, Bird admitted, "I'm not entirely sure… but judging from that secret room you uncovered and everything in it. I'm beginning to feel like I didn't know him at all."

Grabbing up one of the breadsticks from the basket on the table, Bird's voice lowered when she said, "But the part about having to choose either happiness or the truth. He's right about that, you know. Bruce, we don't have a clue what was really going on and what dad was dealing with. If you keep digging…"

Her voice trailed off and his eyebrows lowered, "Go on."

"You know the story of Pandora's Box, right?"

"I do." Bruce nodded.

Bird cocked her head to the side and let him piece together what she was insinuating on his own.

"You're probably right." He agreed, tucking the letter back into his pocket, "But isn't the truth more important than happiness?"

"I don't know." She shrugged, "I guess it depends on much of masochist one truly is."

His brows furrowed and Bird blew out a sigh, "Of course the truth is important. But once you know something –you can't ever un-know it. If it were my decision, I'd rather you be in the dark and happy instead of learning something that might forever change your world."

"But it isn't your decision." He pointed out, "It's mine."

Bird's vision focused on the large windows at the front of the pizzeria where she saw the same two men she'd noticed had been tailing her since this morning. They were trying to be inconspicuous, but being someone who was naturally paranoid and always keeping an eye on her surroundings, she'd easily picked up on being followed.

Reaching for her drink, she tried to internally calm herself down when her heart started to race. Who were they? Who sent them? Was Bruce in danger?

A tidal wave of a nothing less than a million thoughts and questions flooded her mind.

Ever since she'd been framed for murder, she was quicker to jump to assuming the worst when something felt off to her.

No one seemed concerned with her conspiracy theories. Days ago Harvey had even unplugged the television when he caught her watching a show on conspiracies and the Illuminati.

Since being released from Arkham, there were many nights that she'd lied awake in bed staring at the ceiling.  
Kept awake by thoughts and fears that maybe she really was crazy. Maybe she'd been through so much that she'd truly suffered some kind of breakdown.

But this was real. These were the same two men she'd been keeping an eye on all day when they'd show up at the same places she was and she wasn't going to let her brother get hurt if someone was after her.

"Do you have your phone?" Bird asked, as she quickly stood up from the table.

"I left it at home." He admitted.

Her brown eyes locked with his as she lectured, "You should always keep your phone on you."

Before he could say anything, she pulled her own phone from her pocket and handed it to him, "Call Alfred." She instructed, "Tell him he needs to come and pick you up."

Also scrambling to his feet, he asked, "What? What's going on?"

"Nothing." She lied, "Just get a box to take the rest of this pizza home with you and call Alfred, wait for him to come get you."

"Starling!" He called after her as she headed for the door.

"Stay inside!" She ordered.

•••

Bruce stepped outside of the pizzeria, holding the carryout box in one hand and his sister's cellphone in the other.

His heart was beating rapidly inside his chest. Just minutes before, he'd seen Bird get in her car and drive off.

He'd gotten the to-go box like he'd been instructed, but he hadn't called Alfred yet and he also failed to remain inside like he'd been told.

Spotting the front end of Bird's car that was just barely visible from the alley she'd backed into; Bruce tucked the phone inside his pocket and quickly headed for the car.

Just as he rounded the corner of the building, he came to an abrupt stop and the leftover pizza fell from his hands onto the ground –where it landed in a puddle of old rainwater.

There was one man lying on the ground unconscious and he'd arrived just in time to see Bird knock another one out.

"What's…" Bruce stammered, "What's going on?"

"Damn it." She sighed under her breath, before turning to face him, "I told you to stay inside."

"I was worried!" He defended, his eyes falling back to the guys on the ground, "Who are they?"

"I don't know." Bird admitted, "They've been tailing me all day."

"There's rope in the trunk of my car." Bird said before he could ask any more questions, "Maybe a pair or two of handcuffs. Get them."

She tossed her keys to him, but he didn't even make a move to catch them as they landed near his shoes.

"Why do you have rope in your car?" Bruce asked with an ever growing shocked expression on his face.

"For when situations like this arise." She complained, "Hurry up!"

His fingers shook as he leaned down and picked up the keys. He nearly tripped over his own feet trying to run to the back of her car to get the restraints she'd asked for.

This wasn't happening; he thought to himself, this couldn't be happening. They were just supposed to be spending time together and having lunch.

Frantically he looked back over his shoulder to where his older sister was waiting on him, but he just couldn't get his fingers to steady enough to get the key into the slot for the trunk to open.

"We should call Detective Gordon." He yelled to her, "If they really were following-"

"We are not calling Jim." Bird shot the suggestion down, as she knelt down and started to move one of the men's bodies to a position to be easily tied up.

Closing his eyes, Bruce pulled in a deep breath and tried to calm his nerves.

As much as he never imagined the day playing out like this; he was also getting a glimpse of who his sister was –the parts she'd always took care to hide from him.

When he opened his eyes back up, he was finally able to unlock and open the trunk. There was only a slight struggle now as his fingers fumbled to open the black duffle bag he found. As he found a pair of handcuffs and started to pull the rope from the bag, he stopped when he saw a handgun.

"Bruce!" Bird yelled after him.

Seeing another pair of cuffs, he picked them up too and ran over to give her the contents she'd asked for.

Knowing with as fast as she'd been to shoot down the idea of calling Jim, Bruce tried a different approach, "We could call Alfred. He'd know what to do."

"I don't need Alfred." Bird couldn't help but roll her eyes as she spoke, "And I don't need Jim either. I know what I'm doing."

"But-" He started to argue in a fear raised voice.

"They were following me and I'm going to find out why." She hissed.

Swallowing hard he looked around before starting to nearly ramble on, "I read that torture is often ineffective for gathering reliable information…"

Shooting him look and questioned, "Did I say anything about torturing them?

"No, but why else would you want to tie them up and take them with you?" Bruce pointed out, as he reached down and felt his pocket for his sister's phone.

"Look, Bruce. Either you go back inside and call Alfred to come and get you or you help me get these guys into my car. Those are your two options, so pick one." Bird stated, "You should have just stayed inside like I told you to do."

•••

"Hmm…" Bird hummed as she drummed her fingers against the granite countertop and surveyed the knife block.

"A lot of people tend to think the bigger the knife –the scarier." She said out loud, as she started to grab the handle to the biggest knife.

"However…" She breathed, plucking up a smaller one, "I find a smaller blade is much more precise. You know, for more delicate tasks… like removing eyes."

Turning around to face the two men she had tied down to chairs in her kitchen, she smiled widely at their terrified faces. "Now…" She began, closing one of her eyes and acting like she was using the knife as a sight to decide which one to target, "Which one of you would be able to pull off the eyepatch better?"

The man on the left starting squirming frantically around in his seat and trying desperately to talk through the duct tape over his mouth.

"Shh!" Bird hissed at him, eyes narrowed. "My little brother is in the other room."

"Now if you want to talk –nice and civil, I'll take the tape off your mouth. But if you scream or do anything to alarm my brother…" With a creepy giggle she added, "Forget losing an eye; I'll cut your tongue out. Got it?"

He hastily nodded.

Walking over to him she ripped the tape off his mouth and asked, "What are you grumbling about?"

"You got it all wrong." He gasped for air, "We're not here to hurt you."

"Is that so?" She cocked her head to the side, "I guess I was crazy for thinking you'd been following me since this morning then?" Her jaw tensed with the question, "You saying I'm crazy?"

"No!" He stammered, "We have been following you, but not for the reasons you think. We're supposed to keep you safe."

"You're protecting me?" She asked with a disbelieving look on her face.

"Until you knocked us out, yes."

Bird looked over at the other guy who still had tape over his mouth and he nodded in agreement.

She started to ask who sent them, but she thought she heard a car door right outside.

Slapping the tape back over the guy's mouth, she'd just returned the knife to the block when Bruce walked into the kitchen with wide eyes.

"I told you not to come in here!" Bird complained, rubbing her forehead and saying, "And see, not a scratch on either of them. I told you I wasn't going to hurt anyone."

"I…" His voice trailed off.

Hearing the front door open, she asked, "You called someone?"

Without giving him time to answer, she quickly headed into the living room to see Harvey was there. Knowing it wasn't time for him to be off work yet; Bird looked at her brother, "Really? You called Harvey? Damn it, Bruce. I told you I had this under control and I wasn't going to hurt them."

Before Bruce could say anything, Harvey asked, "What the hell is going on? Hurt who?"

Realizing her slip up, Bird let out a laugh, "Nothing. Nevermind. You're home early."

"I was just swinging by to grab some files I left here." He stated, his brown eyes leaving her face and looking to Bruce as he asked, "What's going on?"

"Nothing." Bird lied, holding a hand up to signal for her brother to stay silent.

But Harvey caught Bruce repeatedly glancing towards the kitchen doorway and he started walking that way.

"Your files aren't in the kitchen." She called, chasing to catch up with him, but she wasn't able to get in front of him in time and he saw the two men tied down to their kitchen chairs.

"Oh my god…" Harvey breathed, not even remotely sure how to react to what was in front of him.

"This isn't what it looks like!" She quickly defended, pushing beside him through the doorway to get into the room.

"It looks like you're holding two men hostage in our kitchen, Starling." He stated.

"They were following me." Bird whisper yelled at him.

Not sure if she was telling the truth or was lost in some conspiracy theory fueled delusion, Harvey looked at Bruce and said, "Go back into the living room. It's okay."

"Go on." Bird nodded when her brother looked at her.

Once he was gone, Bird quickly started to explain that she'd seen the same guys following her all day and once she'd spotted them again while having lunch with her brother, she knew she had to do something about it.  
But Harvey wasn't interested in her explanation.

Instead, he walked over to the phone on the wall and picked up the receiver.

"What are you doing?" She rushed to his side.

"If you think you're in danger or think someone is following you –you call the police, Starling." He pointed out in the tone of voice that made her feel like she couldn't do anything right.

"No!" She hissed, trying to grab the phone away from him. But being much taller than she was, he held the receiver up out of her reach.

"You bring in the authorities!" He whisper yelled at her, trying to not let Bruce hear their argument.

"Not me." She strained standing on her tip-toes to try and reach the phone, "Not after what I went through. I tried doing things the right way and the system failed me. I'm not going to call in the GCPD every single time I think something is wrong."

"You cannot do this!" He yelled in her face.

Taking a step back she shot him a look as she reached out and unplugged the cord running from the phone jack to the landline extension on the wall –rendering the receiver in his hand useless.

Angrily he slammed the phone down on the counter and opened his mouth, but before he could say anything she shushed him.

"I'm not doing anything that bad, okay?" She said, "Look, these guys are fine. We were just talking." With that she walked over to the guy she'd been communicating with and pulled the tape back off his mouth.

Looking to Harvey she said, "Go ahead, ask him. I just wanted information."

"Lady, you threatened to cut my eyes and tongue out." The man huffed.

"I wasn't really going to." Bird quickly added, "I don't do that stuff anymore."

Slowly walking towards them, Harvey held his arms out to the sides and asked, "Starling? Do you really not see how crazy this all is? At what point did taking people hostage ever cross your mind as being a logical route to take?"

"I'm not crazy." She was quick to defend.

"Yeah, you say that…" Harvey muttered, gesturing to the men tied down, "But this here –this is insane! Not to mention that you've got your brother in the other room-"

His voice trailed off and they exchanged looks when the doorbell chime sounded through the house.

"He must have called Alfred." Bird sighed.

Shaking his head back and forth, Harvey stormed out of the kitchen to see who was at the door.

"Who sent you to follow me?" Bird demanded to know as faced the men in the chairs.

"You just said you weren't actually going to hurt us." He said, seeming far more annoyed than scared now.

He was being paid a hefty sum for keeping an eye on her and keeping her safe, but he certainly wasn't being paid enough for all of this.

"Right." She nodded, "I'm reformed –mostly."  
Leaning down she got in his face as she added, "I try not to get my hands dirty these days… but I have a friend who lives for it. You may have heard of him –Victor Zsasz."

She watched with a satisfied smirk as the man's eyes widened.

"Who sent-"

"Penguin!" The man yelled at her, blowing out a heavy sigh, "He hired us."

"Oswald?" Bird's eyebrows lowered, "Why?"

"I don't know, lady!" He huffed, "I guess he's worried about you. Something or someone must have him spooked, why else?"

"Now, you gonna cut us loose or wait until that boyfriend of yours calls the cops?"

Grabbing the biggest knife from the block on the counter she set the men loose.

"Where'd they go?"

Looking up she saw Harvey had returned to the kitchen, only he wasn't alone –Jim Gordon was with him.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, not even realizing she was pointing the knife she'd cut the men free with as she spoke.

"Bruce called me." He admitted, his eyes staying on the weapon just as he'd been trained to do.

Bird closed her eyes and blew out a sigh; her own brother had snitched on her.

"Bird." Jim said, "Put the knife down."

Opening her eyes back up, they darted between the expressions on both Jim and Harvey's faces. Neither of them looked too comfortable standing there and she glanced down at the knife in her hand and questioned, "Really? As if I'd hurt either one of you."

"Well, I didn't think you'd abduct and hold people hostage in our house either –but you got me on that one." Harvey exclaimed.

Angrily dropping the knife to the floor, she muttered under her breath that they were lucky she was a changed person.

"Bruce said that you thought you had people following you." Jim said, glancing back to the chairs, "Where were they? What happened?"

"I let them go, Jim." Bird pointed out the obvious, "Don't you think there'd be some kind of mess if I'd killed them?"

It wasn't until after she'd spoke that she saw Bruce was behind them with a rather startled expression.

"I didn't hurt them." She restated as she locked eyes with her brother, but he didn't hold the stare long before he looked away.

"Just get him out of here." She finally breathed in a defeated tone, unsure herself of how the day had went to hell so fast, as she looked at Jim.

Harvey spoke up, "No, I'll take him. I have to get out of here."  
Looking between Bird and Jim he choked down his anger and put a hand on Bruce's shoulder to lead him out of the room, but not before he gave Jim a look to make it clear the he knew about the kiss.

Once they were gone, Bird silently started to push the chairs back up to the table and tried her best to avoid looking at Jim –maybe if she ignored him, he'd just go away.

"What the hell were you thinking?" He finally blurted out.

"Currently, I'm not too happy with my brother." Bird admitted, staring up at the ceiling, "I specifically told him not to call anyone."

"So this is his fault?" Jim pushed.

"I didn't say that." Bird argued, "But come on… you don't snitch on your enemies –let alone family."

"I guess he doesn't follow the criminal code of ethics as religiously as you do."

Turning around, she crossed her arms over her chest, "Don't you have a job or something to do?"

"I was at work. Until Bruce called me." Jim reminded her, his tone softening some, "You scared him today, you realize that?"

When she didn't answer him, he looked back to where the chairs had been sitting and then to Bird as it started to fully dawn on him just why Bruce had been so shaken up, "How did you get two men into your car?"

"Knocked them out and tied them up." She admitted with a shrug.

"And loaded the bodies… all by yourself?"

"Bruce followed me out there, I told him to stay in the pizza parlor and call Alfred to come and get him." Bird said.

"Are you really trying to justify having your brother help you with the stunt you pulled today?" He asked, feeling like he didn't even know the person staring back at him.

He was well aware of Bird's tendency to live outside of the law and take matters into her own hands, her morals were nothing short of questionable on a good day.  
But the one thing he'd never expected her to do was drag Bruce into any illicit activities.

She was always at her most human when her brother was involved.

"Go ahead." She helplessly breathed, holding her arms out to the sides defenselessly, "Look at me like I'm crazy… just like everyone else already does."

"I don't think you're crazy." Jim said, stepping forward, "But something _is_ going on that you're not telling me."

Shaking her head, she picked up the knife off the floor and walked over to toss it into the kitchen sink.

"Why won't you talk to me?" He asked, monitoring her closely as she glanced over her shoulder at him.

"There's nothing to tell." Bird dismissed.

"How long have we known each other?" Has asked, folding his arms over his chest and leaning against the counter, "A year? Year and a half?"

"Give or take." She agreed.

"Okay." Jim nodded, "Over that year and half, I'd like to think that I've gotten to know you pretty well-"

"Is there a point to this?" She spun around and looked over to where he was standing, "Or are you just falling in love with the sound of your own voice?"

Jim's eyes narrowed, "I know you, Bird. That's the point. That I know you –only today, this person-" He motioned to her, "I don't know her. The one who scared her brother bad enough that he called me because he didn't know what you were going to do next –I don't recognize that person."

Bird's gaze fell to the floor, not having a verbal argument to what he said. No snappy comeback or smartass remark.

 **Nothing.**

She had nothing.

Not used to her going silent during conversations of this sort, Jim asked, "What?"

"I…" She breathed just loud enough for him to catch.

"You, what?" He pushed.

"I don't either, okay?" Her tone was empty, but didn't come close to touching the vacancy in her eyes when she finally looked up, "I don't recognize that person either."

It didn't seem like such an off the wall step to take in the heat of the moment.  
She was being followed, she was well aware of that and at the time it seemed logical to tie up the men who were tailing her –bring them somewhere and get information out of them.

In her world, you didn't call the police when something spooked you.  
No. You took care of the problem yourself or you found someone off the books to do it for you.

She was a criminal after all.

Or, at least she used to be. Maybe after months of living within the law and trying to be the person Harvey and her bother wanted and expected her to be should have been enough to change her mindset.

But it wasn't.

It wasn't enough –maybe it never really was.

Closing her eyes she thought back to what Bullock said the day Jerome had killed Essen at the station. The detective had gotten his badge back and returned to the GCPD even though he'd never been happier then when he'd retired from the force.

" _We are who we are, right? No use fighting it."_

There wasn't much that she and Bullock would agree on, but standing there feeling like her chest was close to concaving and in a state of total disbelief that she'd actually pulled her little brother into something like that… she realized without a doubt that he'd been right.

"Thanks." She tried to smile, "For coming when Bruce called you. I'm really glad he's got you to look out for him. You should probably go by Wayne Manor in the next couple of days just to check on him."

Without saying anything else, she tried to walk away and leave a highly confused and worried Jim Gordon alone in her kitchen; but he stepped in her way and stopped her.

"Bird?"

"You should go." She avoided his eyes as she tried to walk around him.

"Wait." He protested with furrowed brows. Reaching out he had to take hold of her arms to keep her from leaving.

Something was wrong.  
The feeling was strong enough that he could feel it in his core, like getting a call in the middle of the night about a crime and showing up the scene without any details; that feeling of dread and anxiousness the entire drive there.

She didn't try to pull away, but she still wouldn't look at him.

"What aren't you telling me?" He asked with any trace of anger long since passed, "What's wrong?"

Bird didn't have the slightest idea where to begin.

Being locked in Arkham and spending countless hours alone with her thoughts had a done a number on her.  
She'd never learned how to be her own best friend and when left alone, she couldn't get the noise and voices in her head to quiet.

Her engagement –her relationship was Harvey Dent was over, all that was left for one of them to finally say it out loud.

Her birthmother had showed up out of the blue in designer clothes with tears in her eyes and seeming genuine in her desire to know the woman that her abandoned baby had grown into –and Bird hated her for it.

Then, of course, there was still the fact that someone had framed her for a crime and she'd realized that she wasn't near as untouchable as she'd led herself to believe.  
Nor was she near as important to anyone as the people closest to her had led her to rely on.

Her apartment was gone.

Her brother was so scared of her that day that he'd called Detective Gordon for help and their father had some secret cave underneath their family home where he'd been doing god only knows what, while they'd all thought he was in his office doing paperwork.

She was all too self-aware of her growing paranoia and increasing erratic thoughts.  
She didn't sleep anymore; she couldn't.

She was suffocating in her own skin. Drowning in her own mind.

 **Everything.**

 _Everything was wrong_.  
And so she said nothing –nothing at all.

"Hey…" He whispered; regardless of their being the only ones in the entire three story brownstone, "Whatever it is, you can tell me."

"Everything is fine, Jim." Her chin just barely quivered as she easily spilled the biggest lie on the face of the earth, "I'm fine."

"Yeah?" He questioned, trying to catch her line of sight, "Then why won't you look at me?"

It seemed to take an eternity before she finally moved her gaze up to meet his.

He swallowed hard, "You wanna try that again? Tell me everything is okay?"

"Why?" Bird questioned, "We both know I could look you straight in the eyes and lie right to your face. I've done it before."

Moving her arms, she knocked his hands away and called over her shoulder on her way to the stairs, "You can show yourself out."

•••

"Why are you sitting in the dark?" Harvey questioned as he walked into the kitchen and turned the lights on to find Bird sitting at the kitchen table.

When she didn't answer he shook the bag of food in his hand, "I picked up dinner on the way home." Pausing drop his keys on the closest counter he walked over to the table and sat the bag and drink carrier down with their sodas as he continued, "Spicy chicken sandwiches –the ones you love from that little dinner around the corner from the courthouse."

A smile just barely touched her lips, "I hold two men hostage in our kitchen and pick up some of my favorite food?"

Ignoring the comment, he pulled the cup with her orange soda from the carrier and sat it down in front of her before opening the bag to find their straws.

"Do you hate me?"

"What?" He asked, stopping the fishing expedition for straws he was sure he'd put in that bag.

"Do you hate me?" Bird repeated, "It's a simple question; yes or no?"

"No." He answered without hesitation, "God, no. Why would you ask me that?"

"Because it's important." She calmly answered, "After everything we've been through and as much as I've loved you…I really don't want us to hate each other. I don't want to be those people who can't even pass each other in the local supermarket without our stomachs turning in disgust."

"Starling, it's been a really long day." He said under his breath, as he turned and walked over to open the drawer where extra straws and plastic silverware from takeout always seemed to land.

"It really has been a long day." She laughed, wiping a tear from her cheek, "It's been the longest day and somehow it's not quite long enough."

Walking back over to the table, he sat down across from her and started to unwrap the straws.

"It seemed like it would just drag on forever when I was sitting her alone. I eventually stopped checking the time because the minutes felt more like hours –and then I heard your car pull in and the click from your key when you unlocked the door." Picking up the cup of orange soda he'd just put a straw in for her, she took a slow drink, "I heard your footsteps getting closer and it just felt like someone hit the fast-forward button and everything started moving too fast and I…"

Her voice trailed off and she sat her drink down when her hand started to shake so bad she was afraid she'd drop it.

"Starling…" He sighed, his eyes closing.

He knew exactly where the night –where this conversation was headed and even though he knew it would eventually come to this. He still didn't feel ready to face the inevitable.

"Do you still love me?" She questioned.

"Yes." He answered without a missing a beat, "I always will."

"Me, too." She admitted, choking on air as she tried to pull in a breath and it felt like her throat was swelling shut, "But it's not enough anymore, is it? Not like you promised it would be."

"I said that a long time ago." He defended in a whisper as he looked at her from across the table they'd picked out together, "For the record, I really meant it when I said it."

"I know." She nodded, her head cocked to the side as she asked, "You remember that night?"

"We were outside of the police station." He recalled, "It was freezing outside and raining so hard it was hard to even see."

"And you told me that we could make it through anything, Harvey." She looked up the chandelier of lights fixed within mason jars, a find at a local art show they'd attended months prior, "That it didn't matter how dark the night go, because the sun would always come up and chase the dark away."

"I know." He followed her sight up to the lighting they'd picked out together, "I remember all of it."

"I guess the sun just wasn't strong enough. We can't keep going on like this." Bird was the first to say what they both knew out loud. Clearing her throat she added, "I packed some of my things… enough to get by for now. I already loaded them in my car."

"No." He shook his head, "I'll go. You're the one who wanted this house."

"But that's all it is to me." She argued, "It's just a house… but it's your home. You made friends with the neighbors and you lived here for months alone, but I… I don't think I could, you know? Live here without you."

"I'll get a hotel room for now, until we figure out what to do with this place-" He started to offer.

"I want you keep it." She interrupted, "Selling it would be stupid. We probably wouldn't bank half of what we put in."

"I don't care about the money." Harvey pointed out.

"Neither do I." She cleared her throat again, "So just keep living here for now and we'll eventually figure out what to do."

"Where will you go?" He asked, "A hotel? Wayne Manor?"

"I haven't thought that far ahead." She openly admitted, "I'm just trying to get through this second and then the next and then hopefully the one after that."

On unsteady legs, she scooted her chair back and got to her feet.

Quickly standing along with her, Harvey admitted in a hoarse voice, "I don't want you to go."

"And I don't want to stay until we resent each other, Harvey." Bird replied, a tear teetering on her bottom lash line, "Come on. You're already getting up earlier for work and then staying later and later at the office –just so you won't have to be here with me. I go for walks in the middle of the night because I hate trying to sleep beside you in the same bed when we're worlds apart. How much longer can we go on like this until every single thing about us annoys the other? Until annoyance turns to hate?"

"I don't know what do here, Starling." He admitted, his usually proud shoulders slouched forward in utter defeat, "Am I supposed to fight for you to stay? Wait for you to walk out the door and then chase after you? Or just let you leave?"

She could see the tears in his eyes and the only answer she could give was a weak shrug as she fought to keep the salt water currently burning her own eyes from spilling down her cheeks.

She'd tried to tell him from the beginning that they were doomed.  
Maybe it was just easier to chalk it up to something that wasn't ever meant to be.

The end was inevitable.

It seemed an easier pill to swallow if she didn't have to stomach blaming him or choose to let the heaviness rest on her own shoulders.

It wasn't meant to be. Their names were never written together in the stars. Fate just had other plans.

The list of excuses could go on and on forever, but the truth was that she'd went into the relationship keeping a mountain of secrets and he'd chosen to completely ignore her criminal side –even after the truth was out.

And while he'd completely refused to accept her dark side, she'd done the complete opposite and embraced his –in some ways she'd even cultivated it.  
Choosing to stay even after he'd shown he had no control over his rage –the point where he couldn't keep his hands off of her.

She'd never loved anyone the way she'd loved him and the same was true for Harvey.

But that love was a rope that turned into a noose at both ends and was slowly strangling them both. A sick game of pressing each other's buttons and pulling the rope so tight the other couldn't breathe.

Their relationship had always been either near perfect or the worst thing for them.  
They'd never had an in between; going from one extreme end of the spectrum to the other.

As Bird locked her eyes with his, it was easy to see they were both wondering the same thing.  
What would be a greater disservice to the all but volatile relationship they'd grown together; let it quietly turn to dust or wait for the next battle to come along and send them both up in flames.

"Starling." Harvey somehow managed to choke out just as she'd reached the doorway.

"Yeah?" Bird questioned, looking over her shoulder at him.

"Don't let this destroy all the progress you've made." He pleaded, "I know you said that you were leaving your old life behind for a new one with me… but deep down, you have to know that you were doing it for yourself. At least in part. So, please, let this drive you right back into everything you rose above."

Looking away from him, she pulled in a deep breath in an attempt to steady herself. "You don't have to worry." She answered, "I'm a different person now."

•••

* * *

 **A/N- Thanks for reading! What did you all think of the chapter?**

 **I owe a huge thanks to Shadow knight1121, xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, Kakkorat is Cake, SmellYourScentForMiles, Land of a billion lights, Amelia, Lolli, southernebelle, MzzLightwood, Safirefly, Miss E Charlotte, Guest and to Maddie Rose for reviewing since my last update.**

 **As always, you can find me on Tumblr, username twofacedharveydent.**


	7. Shattered

**VII**

" _Fate is like a strange, unpopular restaurant filled with odd little waiters who bring you things you never asked for and don't always like."_ _― Lemony Snicket_

* * *

•••

Jim leaned forward, letting his tired eyes adjust to the red and blue flashing lights of patrol cars outside of the twenty-four hour corner store.

When his phone had started to ring at nearly three in the morning, he'd never expected it to be Alfred Pennyworth calling him.

But the sound of the butler's voice had woken him quickly with his mind immediately going to worst case scenarios of something having happened to Bruce Wayne.

Luckily, that wasn't the case.  
The youngest Wayne sibling was fine –but the same couldn't be said for the eldest.

Pulling his car to a stop, he got out just in time to see a highly intoxicated Bird hurl an object out of her shopping cart towards the two uniformed officers wasting time trying to reason with her.

The scene in front of him would have been utter chaos to the fully awake mind, but he was so tired he felt like he could barely even stand and he slowed to stop with his mouth dumbly hanging open.

The officers were yelling at Bird, who was using a shopping cart to stay standing and throwing anything she could get her hands on at them –while Alfred stood off to the side warning the police that they better not lay a finger on her.

Pulling in a breath of the stale tasting night air, Jim took a moment to rub his temples and try and prepare for what he was about to walk into.  
Just as he opened his eyes he caught sight of Bruce sitting in the car near where Alfred was standing.

There was a look of fear on his boyish features as he all but had his face smashed against the window.

It was then that he got a second wind of energy –born from the anger bubbling inside of him. It was just around twelve hours earlier that Bruce had called him because Bird had abducted two men she'd sworn had been following her.

This was the second time within a twenty-four hour period that she'd terrified her little brother.

His pace quickened as he started for the sidewalk, pulling his badge when he didn't recognize the uniformed officers. Displaying his credentials Jim told them he had it under control and they needed to take off.

"Yeah, that's right!" Bird happily shouted at seeing the officers getting into their car to leave, "Show 'em who's boss, Jim!"

"Lady Wayne!" Alfred scolded her.

"Oh, shut up, Alfred!" She yelled back at him, as she threw her hand up and waved at Jim.

Pulling in a deep breath, he gave a half-attempt to wave back at her as he stood in place and watched her stumble over to a close by bench to sit down. Only she missed the edge and landed with a thud on her butt in the mulch of a small flowerbed.

"I'm okay!" She yelled out, but she was far too off balance to try and stand up, so she scooted back against the side of the bench to rest her head against it.

Hearing a car door open, Alfred pointed a finger at Bruce when he stepped out onto the pavement. He'd been told repeatedly to stay in the car.

"What's going on?" Jim asked, walking up to where Alfred was standing with Bruce now at his side.

"Well, I'd say she's off the wagon, wouldn't you?" Alfred pointed out in a no-nonsense tone, glancing back over to where Bird was still sitting amongst the flowers and mulch.

When Jim shot him an unamused expression, Bruce knew he wanted an actual explanation of how they'd all gotten to this point in time.

"Starling called me." Bruce spoke up, "She said she was at the store and needed to borrow money, that she'd lost her purse."

"Was she like this when you got here?" Jim asked them.

Bruce nodded and Alfred let out a sigh of an apology, "Sorry to drag you out of bed at this hour, but I didn't know who else to call."

Jim slowly nodded, "Has anyone called Dent?"

"Master Bruce, here, tried to." Alfred explained, "That was until Lady Wayne wrestled his phone away and broke the bloody thing in half."

Reaching into his coat pocket, Bruce pulled out the broken mess of a flip-phone he'd been left with and showed it to Jim.

"Damn it…" Jim mumbled under his breath, "I really thought she was past all of this."

"Master Bruce, you don't want to catch a cold. Best you go wait in the car with the heat on." Alfred instructed.

Bruce opened his mouth to argue that it wasn't even that cold out and he was wearing a coat, but then he stopped.  
It was clear whatever they were going to speak of next wasn't meant for his ears and usually he'd fight them on it.  
He didn't view himself as a child and Bird was his sister after all, but with everything he'd seen that day all he did was nod and return to the safety and warmth of the car.

"That would be when and why I called you." Alfred nodded back to where Bruce was getting into the car, "I have to get Master Bruce home and she's still upset with me over the business with her mum. Even full of alcohol she'll act out to just to spite me-"

"Her mom?" Jim caught.

"Yes." Alfred replied before slowly realizing, "Oh, you don't know?"

"I guess not." Jim answered, motioning with a hand for him to keep talking.

"I'd have thought she'd have already told you." He admitted, knowing that while Bird was in Arkham the only visitor she seemed to actually want to see was Jim Gordon and he was also aware of just how frequently the detective had been there.  
He'd just assumed they'd stayed close after she'd been released.

"Her mother. Her birthmother has recently come back into the picture." Alfred told him, "Needless to say, she's having a rough go of it and I…" He cleared his throat, "Truth be told, I'm worried about her."

"Yeah, you're not the only one." Jim agreed, rubbing his hands over his face and letting out a sigh, "Get Bruce back home. I'll get her sobered up, keep an eye on her."

"You make sure to do just that." Alfred added with a stern look, letting him know that he was trusting him to get her off the street and somewhere safe to dry out until she was back in her right mind.

Jim gave a single nod and then watched as Alfred got into the car with Bruce and they drove away.

"Come on." Jim said as he walked up to where Bird was sitting on the ground, her fingers now stained from dirt as she'd been pulling up the plants and burying small pebbles in the dirt, "Let's get you out of here."

"Jim." Bird greeted as she looked at him with eyes that couldn't quite focus, "My purse-"

"I know, it's gone." He nodded, "You don't need it right now."

"At first I was worried someone might steal my identity." She admitted with a groan as Jim started to pull her up to her feet. "But who the hell would want to be me?" She added with a painfully loud laugh right in his ear as she clutched onto him to keep from falling back down.

Carefully taking a step back, he checked to see if she was laughing or crying. It was nearly impossible to discern the difference from the noises she was making.

"Hey, hey…" She slurred, patting the center of his chest and then leaving traces of dirt on his shirt as she gripped tightly onto the fabric and whispered-yelled right in his face, "Help me find my keys."

Turning his face to try and avoid the strong stench alcohol on her breath, he said, "You don't need them. I'll drive you-"

"Can I tell you a secret?" She questioned with a suddenly serious look on her face.  
Without giving him time to respond, she leaned in so far that her lips were against his ear as she admitted, "I think I buried them with the flowers."

"We need to find a shovel." It was then that she spotted a guy walking towards them with a small tan dog on a leash, Bird called out, "Hey! Do you have a shovel?"

Not giving a verbal answer, the man shook his head back and forth, keeping an eye Bird and Jim as he let the extendable leash out some to let his dog have more room.

"We'll find them tomorrow, okay?" Jim said, trying to guide her over to where he'd parked, "I'm going to give you a lift, remember?"

"Ooh!" She breathed, nodding frantically and was about to go with him until she saw something move out of the corner of her eye and looked down to see the small dog sniff one of the still planted flowers before it raised it's leg and started to pee on the plant.

With a loud, dramatic gasp, Bird lunged forward shouting, "That bastard!"

Quickly curling an arm around her to hold her back from getting to the man and or his dog. His eyebrows furrowed as he tried to pull her away from the flowerbed, but she firmly planted her feet against the sidewalk and wouldn't budge.

"Bird..." He sighed in frustration. Leaning forward he saw she was staring with an unwavering intensity at the flowerbed where the dog had peed and where she was sure she'd buried her keys for some reason.

"Time to go." He wrapped his arms around her midsection and held on snugly, "Come on."

Only instead of being the least bit helpful, Bird stubbornly let her legs go out from underneath her and Jim held on as he slowly lowered her down to the sidewalk demanding to know, "What are you doing?"

"I don't want to go." She shrugged, slouching over as soon as he let go of her, "I like it here."

Taking a step away from her, Jim blew out a breath and shook his head from side to side.

Impossible, he thought, she was absolutely impossible.

Stubborn as hell when she was sober, but trying to get any cooperation out of her while she was drunk was nothing shy of a lost cause.

Flopping down onto her back, Bird stared up to the sky and complained, "It's not dark enough to see the stars."

"Get up." Jim instructed, as he leaned down and hooked his arms under hers to get her in a sitting position and then stood up.  
Only once she was on her feet this time; he didn't give her a chance to sabotage things again and moved to where he could get her thrown over his shoulder.

He needed to get her off the street and somewhere safe to eat something and drink something other than the contents on the top shelf behind a bar. She was in no condition to be left on her own.

He'd braced himself for a fight, expected her fists to start pounding on his back and her legs to start flailing.  
But instead she went completely limp and just hung there.

Just as he'd maneuvered to get the passenger side door open on his car, he looked up to see a woman out walking her dog had come to a stop to gawk at what was happening.

"This isn't what it looks like." Jim defended, knowing it had to appear the common passerby that he was putting an unconscious woman in his car, "I'm a cop."

Spinning on her heels the woman walked away, muttering under her breath she wasn't going to get involved.

After a slight struggle and strain to get Bird into the seat of the car without hitting her head on anything, Jim stood up and looked to see she was staring at him.

When she'd not helped in the slightest to get into the car, he'd really started to wonder if she'd passed out –but that clearly wasn't the case.  
She was just being difficult.

"My bags." Bird said, "From the cart."

Shutting the passenger door, Jim walked over to where the cart was so he could load the bags into his backseat. His annoyance and confusion growing as he saw bag after bag was filled with various toiletry items. Most of them travel sized.

If he had to guess; there was probably at least a hundred travel sized sets of toothpaste and toothbrushes. Bag after bag of little shampoo and conditioner sets and at least fifty small containers of deodorant.

Tossing the last bag into the back floorboard, he shut the door and finally was able to get behind the wheel.

But the relief and calm he finally felt after getting her into the car and driving off was shattered when she started throwing the deodorants out of her open window at every person they passed.

With one hand on the wheel trying to keep the car in the correct lane, Jim was trying to pull a travel sized toothpaste out of her hand. Finally he got it away from her and threw it over into the backseat.

"Stop it!" He yelled at her, when she saw her starting to reach back into another bag.

"I'm helping them, Jim!" She defended, with a roll of the eyes. Spoken as if it was the most common sense answer in the world.

"How?" He nearly laughed, "How is that helping anyone?"

Crossing her arms over her chest, she slouched down in the seat and stared out the window.

It was nearly five minutes later when she finally spoke again.

"When I got my license and my parents bought me a car, my mom made up all these little care package things. Soaps and deodorant and that kind of stuff and she'd make me carry them around in my car for when I saw someone in need." Bird said.

"That's actually a good idea." He glanced over at her at her.

"All she ever had was have good ideas." Bird said in an empty tone, "She was this perfect, kind person and I was a spoiled brat."

With lowered brows, she couldn't seem to bring herself to stop talking, "I threw them away, you know? The first chance I got, I'd throw all the care packages away. I mean, I had everything I needed –so why did it matter that someone else didn't?"

"Because everyone has to matter or no one matters!" She shouted, causing him to swerve into the other lane. Once he got the car straightened back out, he looked over at her wondering why she'd just screamed that at him.

When she saw him look at her, Bird simply smiled and calmly said, "You're the one who told me that, remember?"

"How do you do it?" Bird asked when he looked back to the road.

"Do what?"

"Be good." She stated, "It's just effortless for you, isn't it? It was the same for my parents and Bruce too. How?"

"I don't know how to answer that." He admitted, running his tongue over his lips before admitting, "But it seems to me like you put a lot of effort into doing the opposite."

"Ha." Bird snorted, before the smile fell from her lips and turned to look at him with narrowed eyes, "My mother said something like that to me once."

Her head cocked to the side as she thought of how different she turned out from the way her parents had tried to raise her, "I wonder what she'd say if she could see me now? Probably wonder how something like me could have come from her.

Jim looked over at her, thinking that she probably didn't even know he was still in the car with her. She seemed lost in her own head and speaking out loud rather than talking to him.

"Oh, that's right…" Bird grumbled, turning in her seat to stare out the window at the passing city lights, "I guess I really didn't, did I?"

His jaw tensed with his brain was struggling to come up with the right words to say, but he couldn't locate them. Perhaps he was even a bit afraid that if he opened his mouth he might end up saying the wrong thing.

It had been a long day and he'd barely had any sleep and as much as he sympathized with everything she'd gone through, he was also disappointed in her for more reasons than he could count.

Slowing to a stop, he rubbed his eyes and avoided looking at the red glow of the traffic light. His gaze drifted down to the time showing on the clock on the dash.

"Do you want me to call Harvey?" He questioned, knowing she shouldn't be alone but he also knew just how long the next day would be if he didn't get any sleep for the remainder of the night.

"Mine or yours?" Bird questioned, her inebriated mind unable to determine if he was referring to Harvey Dent or Harvey Bullock.

"Yours." Jim tried not to laugh at her question.

He'd only just turned his attention back to the road and started to drive away from the red light when Bird took her engagement ring off and hurled it at the side of this head.

"Hey!" He angrily yelled at her.

With a huff, she crossed her arms over her chest and stared out the window.

It wasn't until he passed under a bright streetlight that he looked down in his floorboard and realized exactly what it was that she'd pinged him in the side of the head with.

"Take me home, Jim." Bird called out, still refusing to look back at him.

Jim glanced back down to the diamond ring on the floor of the car and then over to her; wondering exactly what home she was talking about.

He was shaken from his thoughts when he heard her start to laugh. She'd been thinking the same thing and it had suddenly dawned on her that she didn't have her apartment anymore, she didn't have a house –she had nowhere to call home.

"I don't have a home." She belted out with another round of laughter.

She turned further away from him in her seat and when he sat her reaching her hand up to her face, he guessed that her fit of laughter had shifted into tears and she didn't want him to see her crying.

•••

It was a few hours later that Jim stepped into the drunk tank at the station where Bird had been slowly starting to sober up.

He came to a stop when he saw her sitting on the built in padded bench with her head leaned back against the wall and her eyes closed.

They'd ended up at the station when he'd realized he really didn't have anywhere else to take her and she'd started to become belligerent when he stopped her from getting out of the car as they passed a park that she suddenly wanted to go for a walk in.

Her emotions had been all over the place from fiery rage, to deeply upset and at times even happy-go-lucky; though the latter moods came few and far between.

He started to quietly walk back out and let her sleep it off, but stopped when he heard her state, "I'm awake."

Jim looked over to see Bird still sitting in the same position with her eyes still closed.

He'd have sworn she was keeping herself awake on purpose. Most anyone else would have fell asleep or have passed out by now, but not Bird. No, it was like she just wanted to be awake to feel every ounce of misery in her life.

"Brought you another water." He said, holding up the bottle he'd just gotten from the vending machine.

"What a gentleman." She sighed, obviously now irritated with him for something.  
He couldn't be sure of the exact reason this time. Her anger and annoyance had seemed to fire off at him like a machine gun from nearly the moment she'd spotted him earlier that night.

Not opening up her eyes she held her out her hand and he walked over to hand her the bottle.

"You're welcome." Jim stated with raised brows, as he sat down on the bench beside her.

"I'm not gonna thank you for locking me in a cell." Bird commented, as she opened the bottle and took a small drink.

"You're not locked in." He pointed out, "But I didn't know where else to take you and I wasn't about to leave you alone out on the streets."

"This may come as a shock to you…" Bird slightly slurred as she finally looked at him, "You… hero cop, you…" She jabbed him hard in the arm with one of her fingers and leaned in closer, her eyes having trouble staying open, "I was doing just fine before you walked into my life."

Her brown eyes opened more as she accused, "And you had no reason to bring me here."

"You're drunk." He countered.

"Psh!" She hissed at him, rolling her eyes but quickly closed them when she got dizzy, "I am not. I don't do that anymore. I'm a changed person."

When he didn't verbally respond to her, only arched a brow and gave her a harsh stare, Bird sighed her attempt at a confession, "I only had one drink."

"Of what?" Jim couldn't help but argue with her, "Straight gasoline?"

Turning on the bench some to better face him and make sure he saw, she waited until he faced her before she scowled at him.

Unfazed, he stared back at her and watched as her angry expression slowly faded into something he thought resembled a look of worry –mild fear, even.

"What-" He started to ask, but she took him by complete surprised when she grabbed onto the open front of his jacket and held tight as she leaned forward and smashed her mouth against his.

Her movements were hungry –desperate even, with her fingers clutching onto his coat she leaned in as close as she could get to him.

It took his mind a few seconds to catch up to what was happening and even longer to come to his senses and pull away.

Pulling back, he closed his eyes and breathed, "Bird…"

"What?" She whispered, tilting her head forward to rest her forehead against his.

She opened her eyes, but when she saw his were still closed. She slowly pulled away from him and let go of his coat.

"What's wrong, Jim?" She asked in a matter-of-fact voice, "Don't you want me?"

He looked at her, but didn't answer her question –he couldn't.

Arching a brow, she stated, "Everybody wants me."

Slouching back against the wall, she further explained what had, at first, sounded like a rather conceited statement, "They want to own me or use me or control me. I don't even think Harvey really wanted to be with me anymore –he just didn't want anyone else to have me. It's funny, really, how everyone wants something from me –but no one actually wants all of me."

"Who could blame them, right?" She practically spit, bouncing from sad to mad again, "No one wants all of me and I keep breaking myself into pieces for everyone. But how many breaks until it… until I can't be put back together?"

"You need to understand-" Jim began to mentally gather the list of reasons why he'd stopped the kiss. Intending to firstly remind her that after the last time, they'd both sworn it wouldn't ever happen again, but he didn't get the chance when she cut him off.

"I understand." Her eyes narrowed, "I understand that you never seemed to have a problem with my being a criminal when you needed to use that –use me for something. So I guess that really makes you just like everyone else, doesn't it?"

With that, she scooted down the bench and kicked her legs up beside her to lie down.

"Just get out." She bitterly called out while pinning her eyes shut and refusing to acknowledge his presence for even a second longer.

•••

After going home long enough to shower, change clothes and grab a quick breakfast on his drive there, Jim was headed back into the station for his shift that day.

"Hello, Jim."

Spotting Oswald, Jim walked up to him, "What are you doing here?"

Looking around the police station, Oswald said, "It's good to see you back at work. I'm so happy we could help each other out."

Taking a step closer, Jim lowered his voice, "I collected that debt for you. We're even, so if you're here for-"

"Relax." Oswald smiled holding up a hand to silence the detective, "I've only come to collect something that belongs to me."

"What are you talking about?" Jim questioned, but didn't have to wait long on an answer when Bird walked up to them.

Her hair was disheveled, eyeliner smeared and her clothes wrinkled. She was a mess –but Oswald currently couldn't think of a time when she'd looked more beautiful.

Perhaps it had something to do with the early morning call he'd received from her, saying that she _needed_ him to come pick her up from the police station and the fact that her engagement ring was missing from her finger.  
It was just as he'd predicted, she'd come back to him and her relationship with Harvey Dent was a thing of the past.

"Bird." Oswald beamed, "Good morning. I was so pleased when you called."

"Hey." She greeted back, struggling to find a small smile for him through the splitting headache she had under the painfully bright florescent lighting.

"All ready, then?" Oswald asked.

Nodding, Bird started to leave with him –not even glancing in Jim's direction until he stopped her.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" He quietly asked, his hand gently landing on her arm to make sure she wasn't going to walk away from him.

"Jim, my friend…" Oswald said with a tight smile, "My apologies, but I'm afraid Bird and I must be going-"

"What do you want?" She sighed.

Ever since waking up with the feeling of someone operating a jackhammer inside of her skull; bits and pieces of the prior night had started to come back into memory. Like when she'd kissed Jim, after swearing to herself that she wouldn't ever go there again.

"Don't do this." Jim pleaded with an expression falling somewhere between stern and worried, "What are you doing? After everything you're going to walk right back into your old life?"

Her eyes were dull when they finally raised to meet his, she gave a tired shrug, "He's my best friend."

"Then maybe you seriously need to reevaluate your choice in friends." His tongue sharply carved each word and she saw the judgement return to his stare.

"I'm standing right here." Oswald reminded him, but Jim kept his attention steady on Bird as he thought of how Oswald had worded his earlier sentence. That he was there to collect something that belonged to him.

Jim's voice lowered slightly when he asked her, "Remember you said last night? About everyone wanting something from you –or wanting to own you?"

No caring to be reminded of anything from the prior night, Bird's eyes narrowed at him, though he noted they were missing their usual fire.

"Do you really think a couple months of us actually being friends erases the last year?" Bird began without giving him an opportunity to respond she continued, "Or what, huh? That every time you signed your name in the Arkham visitors log that it was chipping away at my memory?"

"What are you talking about-"

"I'm talking about the way you treated me last year, Jim. You'd come crawling to us when you needed a favor –like knowing where Loeb was hiding his secrets or getting enough evidence to put Flass away. But then the minute that you no longer needed someone to dirty their hands for you, you'd climb back up on your pedestal. Always so judgmental, Detective Gordon." Bird stopped to pull in a breath, her thoughts and mouth were moving so fast that she'd nearly choked on her own words.

"We both know it wasn't like it." He defended, his jaw tense and nostrils flared.

Oswald ran his tongue over his lips as he watched the exchange between the pair; his eyes darted between them waiting to see who'd make the next move.

"The difference is –is that I know what I am, Jim." Bird's eyes traveled over his angry expression and she arched a brow, "But you're afraid."

"Afraid?" He scoffed, "Of what?"

"Turning into one of the _monsters_ you've made a career out of putting behind bars? Maybe you're afraid that deep down you already have?" The sudden spark of intensity in her brown hues dulled and she gave an apathetic shrug, "Your own shadow? God, Jim, I don't know and I don't care."

Taking a step away from him, even her voice sounded flat and emotionless when she questioned, "We done here?"

"What am I supposed to do with all those shopping bags you left in my car?" He questioned, trying to steer the conversation away from the hostile tone she'd been so quick to jump to.  
He didn't want to fight with her.

"Throw it away." Her voice was cold as she spun on her heels and started for the door, leaving Oswald on his own to quickly hobble after her.

Bird took the steps outside of the precinct nearly two at a time in her scramble to get out of the building and away from Jim Gordon.

"Miss Wayne." The driver of the sleek black car greeted as he opened the door for her to get into the back.

With a huff, she crawled in and scooted over into the far seat knowing that Oswald would be there shortly.

"Bird!" Oswald hissed through his teeth at the driver as he'd somehow reached the car just mere steps behind his best friend. Roughly slamming the elegant hand carved cane he'd been using that day against the drivers chest he reminded him, "She prefers to be called Bird."

"My car?" Bird questioned once Oswald was seated beside her in the plush and roomy backseat, after his scolding of their driver.

"Taken care of." He dismissed with a hand through the air and a wide smile on his lips.

He watched her intently as she leaned against the door with a slouched and tired posture; the kind that made it obvious she was only suffering from psychical exhaustion.  
No. Her misery went far deeper.

Her unwashed hair hung messily in her face and what make up was left from the night before was smeared on her pale face.

There she was, he thought to himself, his Bird was right back at his side.

A little more damaged now, more broken then he remembered and her low mood was enough to suck all the oxygen out of the air in the car with them.

But it didn't matter, not to him.

Her calling him to come and get her from the police station had been the first thing to go right in his life in days.

"Can you stop smiling?" She complained, just barely glancing at him before resting her head against the window.

Oswald shook his head, trying to loosen up the muscles in his cheeks. He hadn't even been aware of the pointed smile that had been adorning his face for the last several minutes.

"My apologies." He stammered, finally pulling his eyes away from his best friend, "I'm just glad you called."

"I've missed you." He continued when she would no longer speak.

Again, Bird didn't say anything back –but he saw her chest move as she exhaled and seemed to forcefully push all the air from her lungs.

Despite their history and having been the best of friends for upwards of four years, she could still feel a sting when she thought of how it felt like he'd left her to rot in Arkham.

"Bird?" Oswald pushed, leaning in closer to try and see if she'd drifted off to sleep.

"Is it worth it?" Her voice was barely over a whisper and left him momentarily confused before she added, "Being king? Is it worth everything we did? All the betrayals and the bloodshed and how much it changed things between us? Was it worth it?"

Slinking back into his the leather padded seat, he adjusted his tie in an attempt to take a deep breath and ease his aching chest.

 _Was it worth it?_

That was the very question that had crossed his mind so many nights as he sat alone at the head of the table in his mansion.

At times it seemed easy enough to think so. After being picked on and looked down on nearly his entire life, he'd finally showed them. Outsmarted everyone at every single turn and now he'd finally laid claim to the throne he believed was so rightfully his.

But his victory hadn't been without sacrifices. Possibly the biggest one being that he'd chosen that power over Bird.  
So much so that, at times, he'd used her as a stepping stone on the way up.

It was on his loneliest and lowest nights that he'd sat alone at that table staring into the fire place and hearing her words playing over in head from the fight they'd gotten into at her apartment. A fight that now felt like it had been entire lifetimes ago.

It was the first time she'd really started to come clean about her doubts in their plan to take over Gotham and even more so about how she didn't think she wanted that life after all.  
Bird had told him that she didn't want to be like Carmine Falcone –who despite seeming to have the world at his fingertips was truly nothing more than a lonely old man.

As days turned into weeks and weeks blurred into months, Oswald had felt that loneliness for himself.  
There he sat in a newly acquired mansion with the city at his feet, surrounded by so many people and yet without Bird –he'd felt nothing but alone.

But that was all in the past now, he was sure of it. His Bird was back and this was sure to be the first in many more victories.

"Those guys you sent to follow me…" Bird finally spoke as the car slowed to a stop, "They said they were supposed to keep me safe."

Slowly he turned his head to face her.

"Safe from what, Oswald?" Bird asked.

"All in good time." He choked out a response.

The short time in which Bird had been back at his side had been the first time in days that his every single thought wasn't haunted by knowing that Theo Galavan had his mother locked away somewhere and was using her life as leverage to assert power over him.

Having his only true friend back in his life was already providing a small relief from the constant feeling of nausea that had left him drinking seltzer instead of wine.

In time he'd tell her the truth about everything that had happened –just not yet. No, for now he just wanted to enjoy the fact that something had finally gone right when everything else was so wrong.

"The guys you sent were second rate." She arched an eyebrow, silently reminding him of how just how easily she'd taken them down.

"Yes, well, they thought they were to protect you from threats –not be concerned with protecting themselves from you." Oswald argued with her, but still didn't offer up any more information on just why exactly he was worried for her safety.

Once they were outside of the car and she spotted her own car, Bird said, "Thanks for coming to get me. Are my keys in my car-"

Looking confused, he shook his head, "Where are you going?"

"A hotel." She shrugged, "Or lease an apartment… maybe buy a house, I don't know. But I'll figure it out."

"Nonsense." Oswald countered with a smile on his lips that lacked any traces of friendliness, "You'll stay here." He nodded to the large mansion.

He'd just gotten her back and he wasn't about to let her part ways with him for another few months. Plus, the best way he could ensure her safety and that Galavan wouldn't try to use her to get him was to keep a close eye on her.

"That's nice, Oswald." Bird sighed, squinting in the morning sun as she glanced up at the sky, "But I think I just need some time alone-"

"No!" His voice raised and his body shook from the sudden outburst, "I insist. I've already had your belongings taken to your room."

"My room?"

"Come. Follow me." He instructed as he headed for the doors and Bird slowly lagged behind him, watching as one of his guards greeted them as he opened the door.

After being led down a long hallway, Oswald stopped outside a large set of double doors and made sure she was caught up with him before he turned the handle and pushed it open.

"Your room." He repeated.

Bird side-eyed him as she walked through the doorway to see what he was talking about.

Stepping in behind her, he nervously ran his tongue over his lips and waited for her reaction.

Her brown eyes widened as she looked around the spacious room, decorated in shades of black and dark purples. It didn't take her long to notice all her favorite perfumes and lotions adoring the top of the large dresser against the far wall.  
All of then perfectly lined up in rows of three.

The entire room was reminiscent of her apartment –it was perfect.

And as she noticed more and more small details around her, her still sobering brain slowly started to realize exactly what it all meant and her chest began to ache.

"You couldn't have had this all finished in a day." Bird said, turning to face him, "You knew, didn't you? That it was never really going to work out with me and Harvey?"

Not giving him a chance to answer, she continued, "You knew that no matter how much distance I tried to put between me and my old self that it was pointless."

"I knew it was only a matter of time, Bird." Oswald admitted, stepping closer and looking around the room that had been finished months ago. He proudly proclaimed, "I know you better than anyone ever has or ever will –better than you know yourself."

"I should have just stuck to the plan." Bird shrugged, finding it hard to pull oxygen from the air, "All those years of working towards this-" She motioned around them, "We did it. We overthrew Falcone. Maroni and Fish were dead and the city was ripe for the taking –and I just turned and walked away."

"You did." Oswald nodded.

"And for what?" She scoffed, running her hands through her already unkempt hair.

"As I recall…" Oswald cleared his throat, "A better life."

"I'm sorry." She finally said, walking up to him. "For the way things were left between us and for how Harvey treated you when you came to the house that night. Oswald, I didn't know-"

"All in the past." He assured her without even letting her finish the apology.

"Still…" She breathed.  
All of the time she'd spent believing he'd so easily forgotten about her and their friendship, it was clear to see that she'd still been heavily on his mind and in his thoughts.

"You and I." Oswald pulled her attention back to him, "We're inevitable."

Even through the heartache and exhaustion, she managed a weak half smile with the question, "What are you talking about?"

"Us." He explained, "It wouldn't matter which paths we took in any lifetime –or any other universe. No matter how far we strayed from one another… we'd still end up right here. Together."

"You're saying that our fates are intertwined?" She gathered, her tired eyes not quite as empty as they were.

"Call it what you will." He offered with a shrug as he turned to leave.

Stopping just outside of the doorway he looked over his shoulder and said, "Just know that we are who we are; mostly because of each other. I lost you once and I won't let that happen again."

With that he turned to leave and Bird's eyebrows lowered, though she was far too spent to give much thought to his words.

She looked around, trying to decide her next move.

A hot shower and clean clothes would surely make her feel like a new person. The hunger pains and sick feeling of an empty stomach caused her to wonder when the last time she'd even eaten was.

Her eyes drifted across the luggage bags on the floor that Oswald had moved into her room from her car before she'd even gotten there. Seeing as how she didn't really have anywhere else to go –she knew she needed to unpack.

 _Needed._

There were so many things that she needed to do –so much in fact that she couldn't bring herself to do anything at all.

Pulling the door shut to her room, she stepped over her bags on the floor and made it to the large four poster king sized bed. Barely pausing long enough to kick her shoes off, she sat down on the bed and looked back around the room.

Her eyes stopping on her purse which was lying on the bedside table. Apparently, it had been in her car the entire time and she'd been too drunk to even realize it.

Shaking her head she reached over and picked it up to see if her cellphone was in there, but instead she found the prescription bag from her latest stop by the pharmacy.

Inside was a bottle of sleeping pills a doctor had called in the prescription for.

Reading over the label, she gave a shrug of defeat and considered that maybe what she needed most of all was several hours of sleep.

She popped a few of the pills into her mouth and then fished a half-empty bottle of water out of the bottom of her bag to chase them down.

•••

Bird let out a small groan as she started to wake up from the room being far too hot. Reaching up she smacked some of her damp hair away from her face.

She wasn't sure how long she'd been asleep for, but she must have been lying in the same position for hours on end with the way her back was hurting.

Raising both hands up she started to rub her face and eyes in an attempt to further wake up, but stopped short when her elbows both collided with something hard right above her.

When she opened her eyes and realized she was entirely surrounded by darkness; her breath caught in her throat. Carefully she reached up, palms out, until she felt wood above her.

"Hey!" She yelled, growing more fearful by the second and having no idea where she was at.

Slamming her hands against the wood, she screamed out for someone to help her again. Only this time, as she took to forcefully pounding on it with her fists, she started to sputter on the dirt that was falling through the cracks of wood and landing on her face and in her open mouth.

It wasn't until she'd spit the dirt out that she fully realized what this meant.

She was underground.

She'd been buried alive.

"Help!" She shrieked, suddenly feeling the lack of oxygen in what air she had left.

"Let me out!" She thrashed around, not even feeling the pain from her raw and bloody knuckles as she struck the wood again and again above her to no avail.

All she was managing to do was let more dirt fall through the cracks.

Tears ran from the outer corners of her eyes and into her hair as she let out another frustrated scream just as she felt something with several tiny legs crawl across her bare ankle.

Hysterically kicking, she kept trying to yell out for help but throat was sore and raw and her voice had only continued to grow more hoarse.

She finally stopped struggling, all of her movements stilled with knowing that no one would be able to hear her screaming from underground.  
Closing her eyes, she pulled in a deep breath and tried to slow her breathing as much as possible to conserve what oxygen was left –regretfully now feeling the effects of the extreme lack of air.

It was hopeless. Whatever box she'd been locked in was made of sturdy enough wood that she couldn't break through it to even begin to free herself.

Despite her best efforts to keep her breathing slow and even, thoughts and fears creeped into her mind and sent her spiraling back into another panic.

 _What if no one was coming to help her?_

Her chin quivered and more tears soaked into her hairline. She was on her own.

She'd have to save herself.

Pulling a deep breath in between her teeth, she let out another scream as she threw both her hands up again –hitting against the wood with every ounce of strength she had left.

Sharp, intense pains radiated through her bones all the way up her arms and shoulders, the effects could even be felt in her chest.

Her eyes snapped open and she looked around, a pure state of dizzying confusion setting in as she realized she wasn't underground at all.

She hadn't been buried alive.

It had to have been a nightmare –a terrifyingly realistic nightmare.

And while that awareness brought great relief, it only added more to the confusion when she was finally able to get a better view of her surroundings in the tight space she was in.

The last thing she remembered was lying down in bed to sleep –so, she had no clue why she was now under the bed.

Crawling out from under it, she hissed in pain from the stress the movements put on her still aching arms.

Leaning against side of the bed, Bird looked down at her swollen and bloody knuckles. Apparently the nightmare had felt so real, that she'd been beating her fists against the solid wood frame bottom of the bed frame.

Even her knees were bruised up from where she'd been flailing her legs.

As her mouth hung open and she continued to slightly gasp for air, her nose wrinkled. She could still taste the dirt in her mouth.

With her sore knees now pulled up to her chest, she ran her fingers through her hair and pinned her eyes shut.

During her time in Arkham, she'd started to have intensely vivid dreams and nightmares –but still nothing even remotely comparable to this.

She wasn't sure how long she'd sat there, before she finally pulled herself up to her feet and resigned herself to the plan of just crawling back into bed and trying to forget what had happened.

But her breath hitched in her throat when she saw the loose dirt on the sheet of her unmade bed. A deep chill sat into her bones and she would have sworn her blood was slowly being drained from her limbs.

Stumbling backwards, her head flipped from side to side so fast that her hair stung her face with every impact.

Somehow she'd managed to find her way to the door and spilled out into the dark empty hallway.

Her bare feet padded against the floor when she quickened her pace to put space between herself and the horror story she'd just gone through.

Seeing a light coming from an open doorway towards opposite end of the hallway, Bird quickly ran to it and found Butch sitting in a small office, going over the books for the month. Seeing who still needed to pay their tariffs.

"Bird?" He exclaimed when she came into view and he saw her disheveled state. Scrambling to his feet, he looked her over, "What happened?"

"I…" She helplessly breathed with a lost and blank look on her face, "I don't know."

Not even a split second later her head snapped up and she looked at him, demanding to know, "Who was in my room?"

"What are you talking about?" He asked, stepping around the desk.

"I had this nightmare that I was buried alive." She finally explained, "Only I'm not so sure it was a nightmare… someone had to have been in my room. There's dirt on my bed and-"

"I've been here for the last few hours going over the books and no one's came down the hallway, darlin'." He tried to ease her mind, but his words brought little comfort.

When she frantically shook her head back and forth, Butch asked, "You sure that you didn't dream the rest of it up too?"

Bird's eyes narrowed at him, "I'm not crazy."

"I never said-"

"Come look and see for yourself!" She yelled, spinning around and charging back towards her room at the end of the hallway with Butch just mere steps behind her.

"See?" She nearly hissed, motioning with both arms to the bed.

"Not really." Butch admitted.

Bird whipped her to the side and looked to see that there wasn't a single trace of dirt on the dark purple sheets.

"No…" She breathed, running over to the bed. "No, no, no. This… this-it's impossible. I'm telling you it was right here."

Her words were jumbled and tone just short of hysterical as she dropped down to her knees to inspect the floor and look back underneath the bed. Hunting for any sign that she wasn't as crazy as the night was making her feel.

"Bird?" Butch questioned.

Swallowing hard, she ran her fingers through her hair and pulled on smile to try and cover up how humiliated she felt.

"I'm sorry." She quickly apologized, getting back to her feet and looking at the shredded skin on her knuckles before diverting her gaze to him, "You can go back to balancing the books. I guess it really was a nightmare."

"You sure?" He asked, and Bird bit down on her tongue to keep from snapping at him with the way he was suspiciously eyeing her. If one more person looked at her like she was a nutcase, she was going to scream.

"Yeah." She nodded, standing perfectly still and waiting until he was gone before she slid back down the side of her bed and rested her head in her hands.

Maybe she really was just barely treading the edge of her own sanity.

•••

* * *

 **A/N – Thank you for reading! I can't wait to hear what you all thought of the chapter. ^_^**  
 **Anyone else happy to see Bird and Oswald together again this chapter? I can't wait to tie her story in with his this season! And as usual, the running theme between Jim and Bird –they take a couple steps forward and then several steps back. :P**

 **I owe the biggest thanks to Shadow knight1121, Land of a billion lights, Kakkorat is Cake, SmellYourScentForMiles, Safirefly, pierce through the heart, Lolli, Amelia, MzzLightwood, southernebelle, Melody Jane, Love. Fiction. 2017, batarina, Miss E Charlotte, DancingDorisDay, Katniss789, ithinkwerefree and to Guest for reviewing since the last update.**

 **Guys, this is just amazing! I put so much work into Bird's story and to know it's actually being appreciated and well received is just everything to me. You don't even know!**


	8. Twenty Dollar Nose Bleed

**VIII**

"As you know, madness is like gravity...all it takes is a little push." _―_ _The Joker, The Dark Knight  
_

* * *

•••

Hearing the door open to her room, Bird blew out a sigh and kept the blankets up over her head as she turned further onto her side and smashed her face into the pillow.

It had been a nearly a week since she'd called Oswald to pick her up from the police station and he'd talked her into staying at the mansion he'd claimed when he took his post of the King of Gotham.

Her days since had been an alcohol fueled blur in which she was either too drunk to care about anything or slept for over eighteen hours a day to keep from thinking about the shambles her life had fallen into.

Aside from Oswald making it abundantly clear that her heartbreak was inconvenient and growing evermore annoying to him –she hadn't had much contact with anyone.

Which is why when someone came into her room, she'd just assumed it was him.

Despite not being able to see out into the room and being hidden from sight herself with the blankets; she could feel eyes on her.

"Oswald…" She groaned, with her voice muffled by the pillow.  
It was just a night or two ago that she'd woken up to find him sitting in a chair at the foot of her bed, where he'd been watching her sleep for God only knows how long.

"He's not here."

Her eyebrows furrowed at the familiar voice and she pulled the blanket off of her head as she greeted in question, "Victor?"

"Bird." He returned the greeting as he glanced around the mess of a bedroom she'd been living in.

Up until Oswald had brought her back there with him, he'd kept the room locked up tight and hadn't allowed anyone to even step a foot inside.

When his gaze finally landed back on Bird and she grew tired under the weight of his stare, she sighed, "What?"

"Come." He nodded towards the door, "We've got work to do."

"I don't have anything to do." Bird argued with him, "Falcone is gone and we don't work together anymore."

"You're just going to keep laying there?" He questioned through squinted eyes.

"Yes." She stubbornly closed her eyes and tried to pretend he wasn't there.

It was a few minutes later that Victor offered, "We could kill him."

"Kill who?" Bird's confusion grew as she lazily managed to sit up in the large bed and leaned against the pillows.

"Harvey Dent."

Upon hearing the name of her ex-fiancé, Bird's head whipped around to face him and she opened her mouth at the ready to threaten if he laid a finger on Harvey that she'd kill him –but she didn't get the chance when Victor gave an apathetic shrug and reasoned, "You'd probably be better off. After all, your relationship with him keeps reducing you to this pathetic state."

"You don't know what you're talking about." Bird nearly hissed at him.

"Don't I?" Victor questioned, not even pausing for a breath before adding, "I saw you like this before. Remember?"

"Yes, I remember Falcone forcing me to work with you –right around the time he had Harvey beaten to a bloody pulp. Not exactly the best memories from last year." She let the irritation she was feeling flood into every word spoken.

"Is that how you remember it?" Victor smiled his signature predatory smile as he took a few slow steps forward, he reminded her, "Because I remember you coming to me –talking about how you used to be great and blah blah blah." He motioned with his hands while he spoke, "What happened to that?"

"I don't know." Bird shrugged as if she couldn't bother to care about anything anymore.

"Thought you were sick of living in a haze?" He pushed, eyeing all the empty bottles on the nightstand and the floor next to her bed; mentally noting that the scene strongly resembled the few times he'd seen the inside of her apartment.

"Did Oswald send you in here?" She complained.  
Reaching down she grabbed onto the shirt she'd been wearing for several days and brought it to her nose to sniff.  
Her expression immediately wrinkled and Bird realized that the bad smell she'd thought was coming from somewhere in her room was actually emanating from her.  
Apparently self-care had taken a back seat to the drinking and trying to sleep the pain away.

"I already told you he's not here."

"Where is he?"

"Off to kill Janice Caulfield." Victor truthfully answered.

"Isn't she on city council?" Bird rubbed her face as she spoke and tried to make sense of what she was being told.

"And in the running for mayor." He nodded.

"Why…" She breathed, "What reason could he have to want her dead?"

"I'm not paid to ask questions." Victor stated, "I am being paid to kill Randall Hobbs though…" Looking down at his watch he added, "So, tick-tock. Come on."

Knowing that Oswald didn't do anything with a reason behind it, Bird wondered why the hell he was going after mayoral candidates and if she was in a better state of mind probably would have gotten up and found him to get the entire story.  
But that would require more energy than she currently possessed.

Just having a conversation with Victor Zsasz was far more draining then she remembered.

"I can't help you." The defeated tone in her voice sounded alien to both of them. A vacant look took over her brown hues and she slid back down in the bed and turned onto her side facing away from him.

Walking up to the bed, Victor reached down and grabbed onto the side of the mattress and without hesitation flipped it off of the bedframe; causing Bird to land on the floor with a painful thud.

"We leave in twenty minutes." He called over his shoulder before he left the room, "You're driving."

Crawling out from under where the mattress had landed on top of her, she angrily blew the hair out from her face and pulled herself up to her feet.

As much as she currently hated him for literally throwing her out of that bed, deep down she knew if he hadn't then she'd probably have still been lying in that same spot a week from now.

It had always been so easy for her to get caught up in the heartache inside of her and let it completely take over her life, even though that wasn't who she wanted to be.

There had been some truth to what Victor had said –her relationship with Harvey Dent, or more so, the dissolution of the relationship had reduced her to some pathetic sliver of whom she'd been.

The night she'd walked out of their house and said goodbye to Harvey; it felt like she'd broken her own heart.  
It was a deep hurt, more painful then she remembered it being the last time they'd broken up. It felt like someone had cut her open with a dull blade and pulled a piece of her out.

The truth was that she wasn't sure if she went into the relationship as an entire person, but she was agonizingly aware that she wasn't whole when she left it.

It didn't matter that her heart was broken; birds still sang in the beginning of each new day outside of her window.

It was such a strange feeling.  
Feeling like the world had stopped all the while watching life go on.

Sooner or later she was going to have to get back out there and face the world again.

She'd just been holding onto hope that it would be the latter option.

Blowing out another breath, she quickly gathered a clean change of clothes and headed into her bathroom. Maybe, just maybe, a hot -albeit quick shower, would be enough to make her start to feel human again.

•••

"This is the building." Victor directed as Bird pulled the car to a stop near a tall office building.

"I don't even like you that much." Bird stated, as she looked over him, "So how is it that you're the one who managed to get me through my last breakup and apparently this one too?"

"It's a gift." Victor smiled, the red lighting off the side of the building casting an eerie glow over his face and teeth.

Again, Bird swore to herself that if sharks could smile –they'd look exactly like Victor Zsasz whenever he smiled at her.

It was unsettling, but strangely enough there was a degree of comfort between them.

The last time she and Harvey had broken up – she'd found the strength to get through the worst of it through focusing on working for Falcone and training alongside Zsasz.

Maybe it had something to do with how he didn't seem to ever show any emotion and she never felt the need to hide how she was feeling with him.  
She could be visibly upset and he'd never ask what was wrong, he'd just let her be and sometimes that was the best gift anyone could give –to just let her be.

"Hobbs' campaign office is the entire second floor." Victor explained, leaning down some to get a better through the windshield.

"I'll wait here." Bird shrugged, before copping an attitude as she questioned, "Or are you planning to drag me out of the car by my hair?"

Without another word to her, Victor got out of the car and headed for the entrance.

Letting out a breath, Bird leaned her head back against the headrest of the driver's seat and took her phone out of her pocket, intending to call Oswald and find out why he was killing off mayoral candidates.

But just before she could select his name in her contact list, she heard sirens from nearby begin to grow closer and closer.

Getting out of the car she jogged up to the building and looked around the corner to see a large vehicle barreling down the street with red and blue flashing lights.  
She'd heard on the radio just a few days before that a new strike force was starting up at the GCPD to combat crime and make the streets safer –but she hadn't thought much of it at the time.

The department had been trying different tactics for years to clean the city up and nothing they did ever made much of a difference.

"Damn it." She muttered under breath, as she pulled the black bandana from her coat pocket and hurried to fold it before tying it behind her head to help shield her face from being recognized and then quickly pulled the hood of her jacket up before slipping on a pair of gloves and running into the building.

She'd worked with and fought alongside Victor for far too long to just abandon him in good conscience.

Bird took the stairs at least two at time on her way up to the second floor.

"Well, run back to whoever hired you. Tell them I'm not going anywhere. This city needs me." Hobbs declared as he and his guards stared Victor down.

"Nice speech, really." Bird huffed as she ran into the room, before looking at Victor and saying, "We've got a problem; and I'm talking GCPD strike force sized one."

With a single nod, he let her know he understood this was now a problem they needed to take care of in haste.

Looking between them Hobbs directed his attention back to Victor and pointed out, "Count idiot; there's five of us."

"I know." Victor nodded, as he straightened his stance from where he'd been leaned against a desk, "Hardly seems fair."

Almost immediately the atmosphere in the room changed to one of complete unease; of hunter and prey.

All of Hobbs' men went to draw their guns but they couldn't beat Victor's speed as he withdrew the guns from his underarm holster and started firing round after round at them.

"Let's go!" One of the men yelled, trying to shield his boss from the danger, "Move, move, move!"

Kicking one of the rolling desk chairs out into the path of where they men were trying to flee, Bird held back a laugh as one of the guards ran right into it and fell down nearly taking down the man beside him.

The rest of them fled the room and Victor rolled over the conference table, before doing a flip off the end of it and landing square on his feet –where he didn't even pause before racing after the fleeing men.

Bird started to run after him, but the guy who'd fallen victim to the chair she'd put in the way swung a leg out and brought her down.

Landing with a thud, it didn't take her long to spring back into action as she jumped back up to her feet –but he was nearly as fast as she was. Using the butt of the gun he was holding, he hit her on the side of the face hard enough it should have brought someone twice her size down.

"Son of a bitch!" She hissed, doubling over in pain and blinking rapidly as her eyesight wavered for a few seconds after the initial impact.

Startled and shocked by the lack of effect such a powerful blow had on her, the man took a step back with his eyes growing wide.

She was seeing fire red by the time she looked back at him, and in one swift move she lunged forward, putting her entire body behind the force of her arm as she caught him right under the chin with the heel of her hand.

His head snapped backwards and he was instantly out cold.

Bird swooped up his dropped weapon and even though he was unconscious, she didn't hesitate to pull the trigger and fired a single shot between his eyes to ensure that he'd never get back up again.

With that, she turned and ran out of the room, she could hear rapid rounds of gunfire from the stairwell she'd came up, but figuring the GCPD would probably have the door covered. She darted towards a door leading to a different stairwell and made her way outside.

Only she'd misjudged where the emergency exit would lead and as soon as she opened the door and ran outside she found herself behind enemy lines.

She'd ended up on the sidewalk right beside where the task-force vehicle was parked.

Hearing a clank behind him, Jim turned and took aim at the threat that had somehow gotten behind him while everyone had been focusing on Victor Zsasz, who'd been returning gunfire from just down the street, after the strike force had managed to get Hobbs to safety

"Drop your weapon!" He ordered when he found himself also staring down the barrel of a gun.  
He watched as the hooded figure slowly lowered the gun, but seemed hesitant to actually let it go.

"Drop it, now!" Jim yelled.

With a groan Bird dropped weapon to the sidewalk and kicked it over towards him before he even had the chance to give the instruction.

"On the ground!" He ordered, keeping his gun on the assailant whose face was hidden under the shadow of the hood and behind a dark bandana.

Bird reached up and pulled her hood off, letting her brunette waves spill out onto her shoulders just before she removed the bandana and watched Jim's angry expression change to one of shock as they stared at one another.

Not aware of what was happening behind them and still focused on Zsasz, one of the strike force members called out, "Fan out! Flank him from both sides, catch him in our crossfire."

Raising up from where he'd been taking cover behind an open car door, Bullock called out to them, "Yeah, do that."

Seeing that Jim no longer had his finger over the trigger of the gun, Bird pulled her hood back up and raced off down the sidewalk towards Victor when she saw him be brought down by what appeared to be shot to the shoulder.

With a groan of pain, he complained, "Unexpected."

Using his good arm, he fired a shot at the fire hydrant and just like he'd planned; the high pressured release of water shielded him from sight enough that with Bird's help –he was able to get back on his feet and they raced for the safety of their getaway car.

•••

"Hey." Bird greeted as she opened the backdoor of the car that Butch and Oswald were sitting in.

"Where's Victor?" Oswald questioned, turning in the passenger seat to look into the backseat before commenting, "It's good to see you among the living, Bird."

"He's injured." She explained, as her fingers fumbled to get the bottle of over the counter pain pills open. Ever since she'd gotten hit in the head, it felt like her skull had been split open. "He's going to be okay. I got him back to the house and called in one of our doctors. So I'm here in his place."

"And Hobbs?" Butch questioned, eyeing her in the rearview mirror.

"We ran into a problem." She admitted, glancing down to the dosage listing on the bottle before pouring several pills out into her hand and asking, "You got anything to drink?"

Not giving them time to answer, she leaned forward and plucked up one of the cups from the console between the front seats and took a drink before popping the pills in her mouth and downing them all in one swallow.

"Focus!" Oswald snapped at her, jerking the cup out of her hand and demanding to know, "What happened with Hobbs?"

"We took out all of his guards, but before we could get to him…" Her tone grew heavy, "Jim Gordon and his shiny new strike force intervened."

"Oh, yeah?" Butch hummed, "Hmm, didn't know Gordon was the one heading that up."

She nodded, but turned her attention to Oswald, "You know they probably put him straight into protective custody. He's going to be hard to get too."

"Yes, I'd imagine so." Oswald nodded, adjusting the bowler hat he was wearing and thinking out loud, "But he'll drop out of the race."

"Why are you killing off the candidates?" Bird questioned.

When Oswald didn't immediately offer up an answer, Butch agreed, "You gotta tell us what the hell's going on. I know I gotta do whatever you say, but at least tell me why the hell we're doing it?"

Oswald looked over at him and back to where Bird was sitting.

He'd been holding what was happening in for much too long, it had been eating away at his insides.  
He'd barely been able to keep food down.

"They have my mother." He admitted, his voice quiet as he spoke to the two people he trusted most in the world. Butch's brain was still programmed to follow Oswald's orders and Bird had always proved to be his truest friend.

"Who?" She gasped, leaning forward between the front seats to get a better look at him.

"Galavan and his sister." He answered, "They're making me do this."

"Oh my god…" Bird breathed with the feeling of her heart falling straight through the floorboard of the car and landing somewhere in the flames of Hell.

"Holy smokes…" Butch breathed, "We gotta find your mom."

Oswald's voice trembled, "If they find out we're looking, they'll hurt her… maybe even worse."

"Don't worry. We'll find her." Butch assured him, but the sentiment brought little comfort to Oswald who'd been living under the soul crushing threat of losing him mother for over a week now.

"We'll find her." Bird said, reaching forward and giving his still shaking hand a supportive squeeze, "We'll bring her home."

Oswald managed a nod, but even the sound of her voice could only ease his troubles a minuscule amount.

Leaning back in the seat, Bird raised her hand and felt where the skin had broken open above her eyebrow from the impact of the gun and thought to herself that she knew something was off with Galavan from the beginning.  
She'd tried to tell Harvey that there were red flags with how Jerome had died –but he never wanted to listen to her.

Though, now having more facts and looking back; in hindsight it was probably for the best that he brushed it off and didn't go digging into anything. He'd probably have gotten himself killed.

"That's why you sent guys to watch me, isn't it?" She voiced as it dawned on her why Oswald had sent men to guard her.

"Yes." He admitted, "Galavan taking my mother is terrible… but if he got you too…" His chin quivered and he couldn't finish his sentence, "With you both gone..."

"I get it." She softly said.

"If you ask me-" Butch started to say as he looked between them, "I think he about did. That mess about you being kidnapped and drugged and all that."

"Yeah." Bird managed to choke out her words, "When I saw him and his sister that night at the children's hospital fundraiser, it was like it jogged something in my memory. I knew them from somewhere but I couldn't quite place it. I still can't..."

"Galavan is behind the Arkham breakout too." Oswald filled in more pieces.

Looking down to her lap, she whispered, "I knew something was off… I could feel it, but no one believed me."

•••

Bird sat with her legs crossed underneath her on the bed as she stared down to her plate of white cheddar macaroni and absentmindedly stabbed the now cold noodles.

The drive back to the mansion had been very sobering for her.

It was a nightmare to begin with –learning everything about what Galavan had done, but the real terror hadn't come until after she'd fully processed exactly how much pull someone would have to have to pull everything off like he'd done.

They were truly facing an enemy with unlimited means; a threat she'd hadn't been faced with before.

Everyone she'd ever gone up against before had a weak point –a chink in their armor that if hit in the right way could bring them to their knees.  
Even Falcone had weaknesses to exploit.

But even if Theo Galavan had a weak spot –it would be too risky to strike while he had Oswald's mother. The cards were already stacked against them.

Galavan hadn't even been on their radar the entire time he'd been watching and plotting against them.

As much as she tried to push the thoughts from her mind, she couldn't stop herself from going to those dark places and imagining how scared Gertrud must be.

It wasn't just the fact that they'd taken her best friend's mother that left her stomach churning, though that was part of it.

Even living in Gotham; surrounded by crime and corruption, Gertrud somehow maintained an air of innocence around her.  
There were times when Bird wondered if the older woman somehow partially existed on some other plane of consciousness that someone as damaged as her could never reach –where one could achieve an almost whimsical sort of happiness.

There was something deeply wrong with mistreating someone that benevolent and innocent; like hurting a child or even a defenseless animal –it was simply unforgivable.

She, herself, had committed too many amoral acts to count -but even she had lines that she refused to cross.  
Theo Galavan, apparently, didn't have any lines.

Finally giving up on trying to force down another bite of food with her stomach tied up in tight knots, Bird pushed the tray off to the side and slid off the bed to go and check on Oswald.

Just as she neared the dining room door, she slowed when she saw Jim coming from the hallway of the main entrance.  
He stopped to give her a thoroughly disappointed look before charging into the dining room.

"You killed Caulfield. We have a witness. And the attempt on Galavan... was that you, too?" Jim's voice bellowed out into the hallway as he found Oswald sitting alone at the head of the table.

"Not now-" Oswald tried to say, as he stared to wine glass containing water and seltzer.

"And Hobbs? You sent Zsasz and Bird there?" He continued to yell at him.

"It's complicated, okay?" Oswald bit his tongue to keep from saying anything else.  
He had far too much already on his mind to deal with the wrath of a self-righteous Jim Gordon.

Bird lingered in the doorway of the room and watched as Jim walked right up to where her friend was sitting and tried to work through the facts.

"What does it profit you to mess with the election? You have your own sordid empire to rule over."

"Walk away, Jim. Let me be."

"The GCPD has new leadership. No more deals, no more favors. If they find out you're behind these attacks, we will come after you with every..." He started to threaten.

"Rousing speech! Really! Goosebumps." Oswald called out, his voice nasally as he stood up to get on the detectives eye level, "But you came here alone, Jim. With no warrant, no cuffs, no backup, and why? Because you would hate for your new captain to find out about how you gunned down Ogden Barker in cold blood. Over a debt!" A maniacal laugh slid between his teeth as he clarified, "A debt to me."

"He was trying to kill me." Jim defended, his nostrils flaring.

"Where are your witnesses? And just that day before, I suppose you did not ask me to run Commissioner Loeb out of town so that you could get your old job back?" Oswald furthered his line of reasoning and logic, growing long since tired of Jim talking down to him after all the favors he'd done him.

"I'll face whatever's coming to me." Jim's voice lowered back to a normal talking range.

"As will I. Goodbye, Jim." Oswald dismissed, motioning with his hand for him to vacate the room and leave him to his thoughts.

Jim slowed to a stop as he neared the doorway where Bird had been watching them and their eyes met.

"Detective." Bird softly said with an arched brow as she stepped to the side to let him through.

"Bird." He nodded, glancing over his shoulder at Oswald before looking back to her and quietly asking, "Walk me out?"

Gradually she nodded and they walked together in silence down the hallway until they were outside in the cool night air. Turning to face her, he placed a hand on her arm when he saw her start to head back to the house, "What in the hell is going on here?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." She stubbornly shrugged, "And even if something was… it doesn't really concern you."

"Really?" Jim asked, moving to try and catch her line of sight, "If you didn't want me involved in this then why'd you take your mask off in front of me?"

"Shock factor?" She shrugged, "I was counting on you being surprised to see me there and the fact that you weren't going to pull that trigger if you knew it was me."

"Guess your plan worked." His jaw tensed as he stared her down. She'd put him in a position he didn't want to be in by revealing her identity earlier that night.  
If anyone else had seen the exchange between them, Barnes would have found out he simply let her leave.

"Why are you so mad, Jim?" She tossed her arms out to the sides as if she truly couldn't see his side on the matter, "Hobbs lived, your guys saved him. Gold star for you. You get to wear the hero title for another day."

"Why are you doing this?" His voice lowered but the tone was full of gravel as he stepped closer until his face nearly in hers and he repeated, "Why are acting like this?"

"Walk away, Jim." Her whisper of words hung in the night air around them.  
Air that was steadily growing thicker –weighed down with words left unspoken on both sides.

"After everything…" He shook his head, "Everything that you've been through this past year and putting this part of your life and these people behind you… why go back?"

"I tried, you know?" She pulled in a harsh breath with the honest tone she'd taken, "I tried to walk away from this. I gave up my friends and everything I'd worked for to become an easier pill for the people I loved to swallow and it was all for nothing, Jim." A bitter tasting smile curved her lips, "I got arrested and ended up in Arkham for something I didn't even do."

"And the truth came out." He argued with her.

"It did." Bird nodded, "All the truths came out, didn't they? The media had a field day with the leaked information of my being Falcone's biological daughter and my other ties to Gotham's crimes circles. All of that just ended up being the final nail in the coffin of mine and Harvey's relationship."

"So, yeah, after everything I'm right back where I started because I had nowhere else to go. I am who I am and the truth is –is that it doesn't matter how hard I fight it because I was always going to end up right back here." Bird continued.

"That's such a cop out." Jim called her reasoning out, "It's so easy to recuse yourself of responsibly when you tell yourself that you didn't have a choice in the matter. But you had a choice; you always have a choice."

"Why does it matter so much to you anyways?" Bird pushed.

His eyes moved across her features in the streetlights and the glow of the moonlight before he slowly said, "You know why."

"Yeah?" Bird's eyebrows raised, "Then say it."

Jim's jaw tensed with his breath caught in his throat as he stared at her with their faces just inches apart.

When he held his silence, Bird spun on her heels and started back for the house but he stopped her as he admitted, "Because I care about you."

He waited until she turned back around before adding, "And I meant what I said in there. GCPD is under Captain Barnes' leadership now and it's only a matter of time until they're going to come after Penguin with everything they've got. I don't want to see you get caught in the crosshairs."

"Well, if that happens at least I'll be going down for something I actually did this time." Bird said, not seeming to take what he said seriously as she helplessly let out an unsteady laugh.

"I'm not kidding here." His tone switched back to urgency verging on heated as she continued to laugh. The one thing that always got under his skin was her refusal to take anything seriously, "If the GCPD comes after you, I can't help you. There is nothing I could do to protect you-"

"I've never asked you too, Jim!" Her voice cracked as she yelled at him over the sounds of a car driving past the house.

She meant what she'd said to Oswald, that they'd get his mother back –but she also knew that going up against Galavan would put anyone they were close to in danger.

She could feel a storm brewing in the distance –much like how atmosphere of the city changed so drastically after her parents' murders.

A darkness was closing in –so heavy and viscous that it clung to her flesh and couldn't be rinsed away.

"The only thing I'm asking from you now is to just leave me alone." She finally added, swallowing hard as she spoke.

The confusion on his face grew, "What?"

"There's nothing here for you. Not anymore." Bird said.

"I don't believe that-"He started to argue, but she didn't give him much of an opportunity to.

"It wasn't just Zsasz." She cut him off, "I killed someone tonight."

"Bird-"

"After I'd knocked him out, mind you. It wasn't some heat of the moment thing –it wasn't self-defense. He was unconscious on the floor-"

"Stop it!" Jim ordered, but she didn't listen as she stepped closer and coldly added, "He was defenseless and I put a bullet straight through his brain."

Stepping even closer until there was barely any open space between them as they stood on the sidewalk, their eyes locked and a wide smile spread over her lips and she added, "And I liked it."

Even with as much effort as she was putting into pushing him away –deep down there was still a part of her that wanted him to push back.

To use his detective skills and pick up on the clues around them that something was off.

Like how Oswald was drinking seltzer instead of wine or how he'd been unable to stop his hands from trembling.

She hoped that Jim had gotten to know Oswald well enough that it would eat away at him how his going after the people in the running for mayor made no sense at all.

That he might somehow put two and two together and manage to land at four.

Or maybe he'd even be able to see it in her eyes that she was scared too.  
That knowing who'd framed her for murder didn't bring her any peace or solace –only more fear of facing down something far bigger than she'd ever expected.

Jim's eyes bore into hers before he finally pulled his gaze away; angry and disappointed –upset even as he said out loud, "You're really that far gone, aren't you?"

"Goodbye, Jim." Bird said in an eerily calm voice without looking him in the eyes, before she turned and headed back into the house and closed the door behind her.

Her eyes pinned shut and she finally let out the breath she felt like she'd been holding for an eternity.  
She'd pushed hard and said all the right things for him to give up on her –but he'd always been someone who'd push right back.  
But people can only take so much and apparently it was easier for him to look at her and just see a criminal instead of what was driving the situation.

"Well?" Oswald asked.

Opening her eyes she saw him standing down the hallway watching her.

"What did you tell him?" He furthered his line of questioning.

"Nothing." She admitted with a small shrug, before clearing her throat and asking, "If we bring anyone else into this… they're as good as dead, aren't they?"  
Though it was worded as a question; it was spoken as a statement –she already knew the answer.

Oswald gave a single nod in response.  
His gaze lingered on her for a while longer before swallowed hard and questioned, "And you're worried about Jim Gordon?"

"No." Bird lied, shaking her head from side-to-side. "I'm worried about your mom and I'm worried because if Galavan was behind what happened at the children's hospital benefit –then he's trying really hard to look like a hero… not just to the city as a whole; but also to my brother."

Walking towards him down the hallway she thought out loud, "Clearly, he's wanting to be mayor, but no one goes to this much trouble just to be mayor. What's his endgame?"

"I don't know and I don't care!"  
Oswald's sudden outburst stopped Bird in her tracks and left his entire body trembling uncontrollably.

Pinning his eyes shut, he pulled in a shallow and shuddering breath as he leaned his head forward.  
He hadn't meant to snap at her. Out of everyone, she was the one he knew would stand by him –she always had.

"We have to find her, Bird." He finally found enough strength to be able to speak again.

"We will." She vowed, quickening her pack to get to where he was standing, "Theo Galavan has already made one giant mistake."

When he finally looked at her, Bird did her best to smile as she continued, "He's underestimated you. Just like Fish did, same with Maroni and even Falcone. Everyone who's made that mistake is gone and you're still standing."

She could see his chin starting to quiver and the tears welling up in his eyes; she fought against the burning sensation stinging at her own eyes, "He's not going to win, Oswald. We won't let him. We're going to get your mom back and then we're going to kill Galavan and anyone who's helping him."

With that she stepped closer and wrapped her arms around him and for the first time since everything had started to crash and burn in his world –he could see a tiny glimmer of hope on the horizon.

 **••• The next day •••**

"Feeling better, are we?" Alfred questioned as he approached Bird, who'd just came in the main entrance of Wayne Manor.

"You mean since you called Jim on me outside of the corner store that night?" Bird shot back without missing a beat.

"Lady Wayne…" Alfred sighed with a slight shake of the head. Deciding to skip the lecture he was sure would do neither of them any good, he then guessed, "Here to see Master Bruce?"

"I'll be in the study." She replied, breezing past him.

"Right, well, I'll just go and fetch him then." Alfred called after her.  
Once she was out of sight, he tilted his head back and stared up at the ceiling finally allowing the irritated sigh he'd been holding back to escape.

Ever since she'd learned he'd known the truth about her birthmother, Bird had been giving him the cold shoulder –freezing him out.  
He hadn't seen such behavior from her since she'd been a teenager.

Bird walked into the study and glanced around before plopping down onto one of the sofas and waiting to speak to her little brother.  
Something that she knew should have been done several days ago, but she hadn't been in the right state of mind to see him.

An unbalanced laugh slid from between her teeth as she considered that she probably still wasn't, but part of being an adult was stepping up and doing things that you didn't want to; like apologizing to someone you've wronged.

Closing her eyes, she slid down in her seat some and rested her head against the back of the couch hoping to rest her eyes and mind, even if only just for minute.  
Only rest never seemed to come easy to her anymore. Even when she slept days away, she never actually felt rested.

Instead of the darkness behind her eyelids, she could see Jim's face –that day in the kitchen when he'd told her he didn't recognize her anymore. That the person he'd believed her to be wouldn't have ever involved Bruce in illicit activities.

Letting out a groan, she roughly rubbed her hands over her face trying to shake the memories free.

" _g."_

Slowly her hands fell from her face and her posture straightened when she'd heard her name whispered in a child's voice.

She looked around the room, but didn't see anyone else there and nothing appeared to be out of place.

Just as she was about to dismiss it, she saw a small shadowed figure from behind the long curtains covering the windows against the far well.

"Hello?" Bird asked, as she stood up and started towards the windows.  
As she got closer she could see a pair of socked feet just barely visible from where the curtains nearly touched the floor.

She reached out and grasped onto the curtain, but hesitated to pull it aside.

It was clear someone was hiding there –but the shadow was too small to be her brother, plus he'd never been the type to hide and jump out at someone. That was something she'd done as a young child, but not her brother.

Aside from Alfred, there shouldn't have been anyone else in the house.

This is crazy.  
She thought to herself. The late evening lighting had her eyes playing tricks on her; seemed to be the only logical explanation.

Having nearly convinced herself of just that, she counted to three inside her head and jerked the curtain open in one swift movement.

" _Boo!"_

Bird watched state of shock that cut so deep it was paralyzing as a little girl with a mess of long brown waves yelled at her before giggling and running out of the room, leaving the sounds of laughter bouncing off of the walls well after she was out of sight.

Blinking rapidly, Bird was finally able to move again and she rubbed her eyes as if that could somehow erase what she'd just witnessed.  
It wasn't until she was finally able to pull in deep breath that she'd realized she knew that little girl, she'd seen that face looking back at her in so many family pictures filling the albums in Wayne Manor.

It was her, her face –from many years ago.

Darting out of the room, Bird looked around trying to catch another glimpse of her younger self, all the while desperately hoping she wouldn't.

Off to the right she saw the mess of brown waves disappear around the corner and she jogged after her, following her all the way down the other hallway and into the bathroom, her pace slowed as she stepped onto the tile floor and no longer could see the young girl.

Her eyes cut over to where the white shower curtain was pulled closed and before she had the chance to talk herself out of it, she reached over and jerked it open.

Only this time there was no surprise waiting for her; just an empty shower.

Shaking her head, Bird pulled the curtain back closed and started to walk back out of the room, her mind racing and trying desperately to come up excuses for what she'd just seen.

It was then that she came to a dead stop in the center of the room, out of the corner of her eye she'd noticed that her reflection in the mirror wasn't mirroring her movements.  
Swallowing hard, Bird ever so slowly turned her head and looked straight into the mirror –as her reflection smiled sinisterly back at her, a chill prickled down her spine.

This isn't real, she told herself, this couldn't be real.

Though, losing her mind didn't sound like the best alternative either.  
Especially not now.  
Not when her best friend's mom had been kidnapped by the same people who had framed her for murder months before.

No, going crazy right now wasn't an option.

"It's not real." She breathed as she pinned her eyes shut and wished the hallucinations away.

"It's not real." She repeated again, her hands opening and clenching closed into fists repeatedly at her sides.

" _ **This isn't real."**_  
Chanting it one last time with more conviction, as if she were sending up a prayer –Bird finally opened her eyes and let out a sigh of relief when her reflection was mimicking her actions again.

She turned her head from side to side and twisted her face up in various expressions for good measure before she got the nerve to step up to the sink.

Reaching up she pushed on the corner of the glass to open the medicine cabinet behind it. She was just about to close it up when the light glimmered off the blade of a pair of scissors.

Picking them up, she closed the cabinet and stared at her reflection again and before her brain had even fully caught up with her actions she was cutting inches off of her long hair.

Dark waves fell onto the counter, in the sink and down onto the tile floor around her shoes.

 _Snip_

 _Snip_

 _Snip_

Each time the blades moved against each other and more of her hair littered the bathroom; the freer she felt.  
With every inch gone it was as if she was cutting away something bad that had happened.

She didn't stop until her hair was long enough to hang just past her chin.

The scissors fell with a clank to the tile and she let out the breath she'd hadn't even realized she'd been holding.

Without giving much attention to the mess she'd made, she turned and simply walked out of the room, making her way back to the study to find her brother there waiting on her.

"Starling, I thought-" Bruce started to say, but his sentence abruptly came to a stop when he got a look at her.

"You, uh, you cut your hair." He pointed out the obvious. Seeing all the uneven chunks and slanted, jagged edges he cleared his throat and did his best to smile, "It looks nice."

"It feels nice." Bird replied, as she walked further into the room and back over to the windows where she'd seen her younger self just minutes before. Leaning against the wall she glanced over her shoulder and said, "Tell Alfred sorry about the mess."

Shifting his stance, Bruce continued to watch her.

"I'm sorry." He softly said, "That it didn't work out with you and Harvey."

"He told you?" Bird asked, finally turning back around to face him.

"Not exactly." Bruce explained, "I called your house when you weren't picking up your cellphone. He didn't say much…but you're not wearing your engagement ring anymore."

"Huh." She exclaimed, eyes squinting at him, "Very perceptive of you."

"You never got around to packing up your room last year." He pointed out, "You're welcome to move back home-"

"No, thank you." Bird didn't even let him finish the invitation.

"Where are you staying?" He pushed for more information from her.  
Something was wrong, something was off with her –he could sense it; made his skin feel like there were microscopic bugs all over him.

"With a friend." Bird answered, "Oswald Cobblepot."

Bruce's eyebrows immediately furrowed, "The Penguin?"

When she nodded, his forehead lines deepened, "But… but he's a criminal."

"And what exactly do you think I am, little brother?" She questioned, taking a few steps forward and even though he was growing more uncomfortable by the second –he didn't back away.

"What do you think I stopped here for?" She continued.

"To apologize." He freely admitted.

Lowing her head, Bird let out a laugh before she quickly stepped forward and took his face in her hands with her admission, "That's right! You're exactly right. The entire drive over here I was planning on apologizing to you –for involving you when I saw those guys following me. Tell you how sorry I was for drunk dialing you the other night and how I wished you hadn't had to see me like that-"

"Let go!" Bruce complained, trying her pull her hands off the sides of his face and back away from her.

"Why?" Bird asked, her eyes taking on a wild hue and her voice growing higher as she asked, "Are you afraid of me?"

Finally knocking her hands away from him, Bruce stepped back away from her and glanced back at the doorway as he called out, "Alfred!"

"What do you think he's going to do?" Bird's voice bellowed through the room.  
It only took Alfred mere seconds to rush to sound of Bruce's distressed voice, he entered the room and didn't slow down until he was next to him –ready to defend him if he had to.

"I mean really…" Bird tried to hold it back, but another unstable laugh erupted from somewhere inside of her and she took a couple steps away from them, "What are either of you going to do? What? Call Jim Gordon on me again?"

When neither of them seemed able to find an answer for her, Bird commented, "Go ahead. Call him –but I'll bet he's not so willing to run to my rescue now."

"Lady Wayne-" Alfred began.

"No, you see, Bruce –I really did come here to say sorry but it just occurred to me that I don't owe you an apology." Bird cut Alfred's attempt to get through to her short and directed all of her attention to her brother, "I don't owe anyone a damn thing."

"I am so sick and tired of apologizing for who I am to all of you!" She yelled, throwing her arms dramatically out to the sides, "I'm not the bad guy. He's out there, somewhere, but it's not me, okay?"

Her whole head moved as she looked impatiently back and forth between them, "Okay?" She repeated twice as loud.

At a complete loss as to what he should do or say to her, Bruce gradually nodded his head.

"Good." Bird nodded back at him.

"I think it's best if you called it a night, Lady Wayne." Alfred sternly said, taking a step closer to her and moving to shield Bruce from seeing her like that any further.

"No, he needs to hear this." Bird argued, but stayed where she was standing as she spoke, "Rule number one of surviving in Gotham; you don't snitch. You don't rat out your enemies… and you sure as hell don't call the police on your own family, little brother."

"Yeah?" Alfred's eyebrows raised, "And what would you have had him do, hm? You knocked two men unconscious in an alley and had your bother help you load them into your car!"

"I called Detective Gordon, not the police." Bruce tried to defend his actions, "He's a friend."

"Snitches get stitches, Bruce." Bird called out in a sing-song voice and even Alfred felt like he had no idea who this person standing in front of them was.

Stepping out from where Alfred had him partially shielded, Bruce raised his voice to get through to her, "I don't understand." He admitted with his entire face contorted with emotion and confusion, "Why are you acting like this?"

"Why does everyone keep asking me that? I'm not acting like anything." Bird argued with him, her own face twisted up as if she honestly didn't see a single thing wrong with what she was saying or how she was acting.  
"You wanted this, right? You wanted to know the things I kept hidden from you and then you got a glimpse behind the curtain and didn't like what you saw. So, really, this is on you." She jotted a finger in his direction.

"Maybe you shouldn't be hunting down the answers to questions you're not ready to have answered." She shrugged, the lively look leaving her eyes just as fast it had emerged.  
Suddenly looking rather exhausted she shrugged again, "You saw all that crap dad was hiding under the house. What if you start uncovering things about him that you never wanted to know?"

"That's enough!" Alfred yelled, motioning to the doorway he questioned, "I trust you can find your own way out?"

Bird looked at her brother one last time before she brushed past and purposely bumped into Alfred on her way out of the room.  
She kept her brisk walking pace right out of the front door, which she left standing wide open behind her, until she reached her car and sped off of the property.

•••

* * *

 **A/N – Thanks for reading! I really hope you all liked the chapter.**

 **I owe a huge thanks to everyone who has added and/or favorited Bird's story. Seriously, it puts a smile on my face everytime I get a new email alert. (That is when Fanfiction actually sends emails to me. Haha) And an even bigger to all of you who are kind enough to review and help keep me motivated to write and get the next chapters out.**

 **Kakkorat is Cake, xxXWolfsLullably, Shadow knight1121, Love. Fiction. 2017, Katniess789, SmellYourScentForMiles, MzzLightwood, Amelia, Safirefly, DancingDorisDay, Miss E Charlotte, Land of a billion lights, SusieSamurai, Amy and to the Guests who have reviewed since last chapter –you're all amazing! Thank you so much for the support. ^_^**


	9. Last Love Song

**IX**

" _Love blurs your vision; but after it recedes, you can see more clearly than ever. It's like the tide going out, revealing whatever's been thrown away and sunk: broken bottles, old gloves, rusting pop cans, nibbled fishbodies, bones. This is the kind of thing you see if you sit in the darkness with open eyes, not knowing the future."_ _― Margaret Atwood, Cat's Eye_

* * *

•••

Giving up on towel drying her freshly washed hair, Bird wrapped a towel around her head and sat down on the side of her bed; she looked down at her cellphone screen listing out the several missed calls from Harvey Dent that she'd ignored that morning.

She wasn't sure why he kept calling her, he hadn't left a voicemail to give any clues –and she wasn't sure she was ready to talk to him yet.

Her eyes cut over to where her engagement ring was sitting on her nightstand and she blew out a breath, wondering if he was calling to remind her how she hadn't been back to the house to collect anymore of her belongings.

Her concentration was broken when there was a knock on her door, sliding off the bed she crossed the room and pulled the door open expecting to either see Oswald or one of the kitchen staff with her breakfast.

"Good morning." Erin greeted her client with a tight smile.

"Erin?" Bird's eyebrows furrowed as she stared back at her lawyer and asked, "What are you doing here?"

Walking past her, Erin looked around the large bedroom before turning back to face her and saying, "You're due at the police station in less than an hour for questioning. There's no way you're walking in there without proper legal counsel."

Seeing the confused look on Bird's face, Erin cocked her head to the side and explained, "Harvey called me –apparently GCPD showed up at your house bright and early this morning to bring you in for questioning on the attack at Hobbs' campaign office a few days ago."

"Jim called me yesterday." Bird admitted, "Left a voicemail saying I needed to come in on my own free will for questioning or Barnes was going to have me brought in."  
Shaking her head she sighed, "I didn't expect them to go by the house looking for me."

"So here is what's going to happen now." Erin said as she walked over and opened the closet to survey the sparse amount of clothing, "You're going to put on something nice. Preferably a dress –beige or some other neutral color to appear as least threatening as possible."

With a sigh at not only the limited amount of clothing, but also at the fewer color choices, she pulled the closet doors shut and said, "We'll stop on the way and get you something new to wear."

"None to very light make-up." Erin continued, motioning at Bird's face, "Makes you look younger. More vulnerable."

"This is stupid." Bird argued with her.  
Knowing there was nothing to actually tie her to the crime they wanted to ask her about. She'd worn gloves and kept her face covered.

"I'm going to do most of the talking." Erin added, as she started fishing around in her oversized designer purse and pulled out a small notepad, "Now, on the night in question-"

"I was working with Victor Zsasz." Bird openly admitted.

"No." Erin scolded, shooting her a look and then reading from the notepad, "You were at the house you and Harvey Dent share."

"Wait… what?" Bird's forehead lined with confusion, but before she could ask much else her lawyer added, "For dinner the two of you cooked asparagus and lemon risotto and spent the rest of the night talking about a variety of personal things that is none of the GCPD's concern. Time got away from you and before you knew it was well after midnight and so you stayed over –you took the bed because he offered to sleep on the couch."

"The couch?" Bird repeated back with her head spinning and confused expression growing by the second.

"That detail is important." Erin nodded, "He was downstairs so if you'd come down to leave, he would have woken up. You didn't leave the house for the any reason –not even to step outside for fresh air. You did not leave the house. Okay?"

"No!" Bird shook her head, "None of this okay. Did you tell him to lie to the cops for me?"

Seeing the angry expression and unmistakable hostile edge her voice had taken, Erin held the notepad out for Bird to take and explained, "I'm just here relaying the message. When the police came knocking this morning and asking questions –that's is the story he gave them. So you need to memorize and repeat this back at the station as if it's fact."

Looking down to the notepad, Bird closed her eyes and let out a defeated breath at seeing it was written down in Harvey's writing.  
For whatever reason, he had lied to the police and covered for her.

Handing it back to Erin, Bird realized and said out loud, "He lied for me because he thinks I must be guilty."

"You are guilty." Erin chimed in.

"Exactly, so if the truth does come out… he can into trouble for lying."

"Like I said, you need to memorize your alibi." Erin nodded.  
Looking Bird over; she said, "Come on, get dressed. We've got a few stops to make before we show up at the police station."

Bird pulled the towel off of her nearly dried hair and tossed it over onto the foot of the bed on her way to the closet.

"What the hell did you do to your hair?" Erin gasped, her eyes widening as she rushed forward to get a better look.

"I cut it-"

"Not very well." Erin agreed as she saw the uneven ends and jagged angles, "We have to fix this."

"I tried to before I showered." Bird shrugged, "But I think I just made it worse."  
She watched as Erin disappeared into her bathroom for a few minutes before returning with a pair of scissors and guiding her client over to the seat in front of the large vanity.

"We already have to stop for clothes, we don't have time to stop at a salon." Erin called over her shoulder as she opened up the dark curtains to allow the morning sunlight to fill the room.

"Do you know what you're doing?" Bird asked her, but it was clear from her body language that she didn't even care.

"I put myself through law school." Erin stated, stepping up behind Bird and plucking a comb up from the vanity, "On a good week –I was lucky to afford to live off Raman Noodles. Spending money on even a cheap haircut was out of the question."

Picking the towel up that Bird had thrown onto the bed, Erin draped it over Bird's shoulders to catch the hair clippings. "I know it doesn't come easily for you, but just trust me."

Shrugging, Bird avoided eye contact with her through the large vanity mirror, "My hair is the least of my problems. I honestly couldn't care less how it looks."

"Well, I do care." Erin blew out a breath as she started to even out the tips, "You need to look a lot more put together and a lot less like you got into a fight with Edward Scissorhands."

The room fell into silence as Erin continued to fix the disaster that Bird had made of her own hair, until she finally asked, "Why'd you cut it?"

"I don't know."

"It's okay, you don't have to tell me."

"No." Bird sighed, "I really don't have an answer to give. I don't know why I did it. One minute I felt like everything was just spiraling out of control and crumbling around me and the next I was chopping away at my hair and things started to still for a minute."

Without being prompted to give up more information, Bird swallowed hard, "That same night I was also really terrible to my brother and I don't have answer for why I acted like that either."

"If anyone asks about your hair, we're going to say you wanted a change. A fresh start." Erin corrected, before her professionalism faded and real concern showed on her face, "Do I need to be worried?"

"No." Bird answered, "I've got the story memorized. I can spend this morning putting on a friendly smile, acting cooperative and lying about how I didn't kill someone earlier this week."

"I'm not talking about your public image." Erin argued, as she worked on changing the part in Bird's hair over to one side inside of right down the middle, "I mean about you –about your mental state."

"What mental state?" She nearly snorted her response, "Just little ole' Bird, crazy as ever-"

"You're not crazy."

"You might just be the only person on earth who believes that then."

Stepping around the side, Erin made a few more last minute adjustments to Bird's hair and instructed her to keep the part off centered to make the unevenness look more like a trendy style then a mistake.

Erin began, "When I first agreed to take your case earlier this year –I only did so because of how long I'd been on your father's legal team-"

"Don't." Bird stood up and pushed the towel off her shoulders onto the floor then turned to face her, "Don't call him that. Real fathers don't backhand their daughters when they step out of line, they don't have their boyfriends beat up to teach them a lesson and they sure as hell don't up and disappear on them."

"Fair enough…" Erin breathed, "My point being that Carmine was always good to me and truth be told –that was the reason I agreed to take your case."

Bird's jaw tensed and she crossed her arms over her chest as she waited for the next probable insult about to be hurled her way.

"But I'd like to think in all these months of working for you, that I've gotten to know a good portion about you. Don't forget that I was right there with you through it all." Erin tucked her shoulder length dark auburn hair behind her ear and her shoulders dropped, "I wasn't sure what to think of you in the beginning, but then I saw it all happening. It didn't matter which judge we tried to pay off –something always happened. I used every single legal and illegal loophole and maneuver I knew and none of it mattered."  
Her eyes locked with Bird's, "Someone framed you and they did a horrifyingly good job at it. I know being in Arkham wasn't a cake walk and I'm sure you've still got some things you need to work through from that, but one thing I'm sure of is that you are _not_ crazy."

"What if I said that sometimes I really feel like maybe I am going crazy?" Bird's voice was soft and unsure.

"Then I'd say that someone must be going to extreme lengths to make you feel that way." Erin's tone was unwavering and Bird found herself envious of that confidence.

She couldn't remember the last time she'd felt that sure about anything.

•••

"Look at me." Erin instructed as she and Bird stood next to the chairs they'd been instructed to wait by at the police precinct.

When Bird did as she was instructed, Erin pulled a make-up bag from her own purse and started to dust Bird's cheeks with a light shade of blush.

Eyeing the large bag, Bird breathed, "Good god, what else do you carry in that thing?"

Cracking a smile Erin said, "Shush. I'm trying to make you look human."

"Thanks." Bird's voice was dripping in sarcasm.  
She ducked away from mascara wand that Erin was now holding, "And you told me not to wear any make-up."

"That was before I got a look at you under the florescent lighting." Erin argued, instructing her to hold still and open her eyes wide, "Your color is off. We want you to look soft –not sickly."

"Are you eating?" Erin pushed.

Bird held back a laugh at the question.  
Her stomach was tied up in constant knots and no matter what she did, she couldn't seem to rid herself of the nauseas feeling that was plaguing her day and night since she'd learned Theo Galavan had abducted Oswald's mother and been responsible for seemingly everything else wrong in their lives.

"When I can." Bird answered with a shrug before commenting, "But I am getting plenty to drink these days."

"Mhmm…" Erin hummed, handing her a small tube of tinted lip balm and sternly saying, "You better be talking about water and not the hard stuff."

"This is wrong." Bird finally exclaimed, unable to hold her thoughts in any longer, "This whole thing is ridiculous. They have absolutely nothing tying me to what happened at Hobbs' campaign office!"  
Leaning in she lowered her voice, "And Harvey lying to the cops… he can't be doing that for me. All he's going to do is get himself in a mess of trouble."

"That's something you need to take up with him." Erin pulled something from her pocket and held her hand out to Bird, "Put this on." She instructed as she dropped the engagement ring she'd swiped off of Bird's nightstand in her hand.

Bird looked down to the diamond ring resting in her palm and then back up to her lawyer with a pained and angry expression.  
"No." She argued.

That ring symbolized a version of herself that she wasn't anymore. It was a reminder of the life that could have been. Something that she'd worked and sacrificed for –all of the heartache and wasted effort that that path had ended in.

It might have just been a piece of jewelry –diamonds fixed on a delicate braided white gold band, but it hurt to even look at it; let alone wear it.

"You're unsure about your future with Harvey-" Erin's eyebrows raised as she tried to drive the point home.

"I'm not doing this." Her headshake of rejection was nearly frantic, "I cannot do this."

"Look, I know this isn't pleasant, but your alibi is that you and Harvey are trying to work things out… that's why you were back at the house that night. We need to sell that and if you end up being questioned by one of the few good detectives on the force then they're going to notice you not wearing the ring." Erin's tone was empathetic, but she wasn't backing down.

She knew what she was asking of Bird was going to be emotionally trying, but it would help sell their lie.  
After all, she may not have had the reputation of being the most soft and sensitive lawyer out there, but she was damn good at what she did and that's why she'd been hired in the first place.

As painful as it might have been for her client, she wasn't in the business of mending broken hearts, she was in the criminal defense business and she'd do anything to win.

"You may not want him involved in this, but it's too late for that. He involved himself the moment he chose to lie to the police and it may be difficult to accept but the hard truth is that this is a win for us –for you. So put that ring back on." Erin's words hung thickly in the air around Bird, until she finally slid the white gold band onto her finger and let her hand fall at her side.

Erin glanced around them, "Something else you probably don't want to hear… but, now might not be the best time to distance yourself from Harvey Dent."

Bird's eyebrows furrowed.

"You're not public enemy number one, but you're also not exactly winning any popularity contests and you're choosing to surround yourself with the likes of people like Penguin. In doing that, you are putting yourself at risk for going down for any number of crimes." Erin huffed, "He might fancy himself a king –but the truth is he doesn't have the money, influence or following that Falcone did and it's my professional opinion that it's only a matter of time until either someone else rises up to take this throne or the police and DA's office go after him. You need to be as far away from him as possible when that day comes."

"Did you miss the part about Harvey and I breaking up? Erin, even if I wanted to try and get back in his good graces, I couldn't-"

"He took it upon himself to lie and protect you. He still loves you. You can use that to your benefit." Erin urged, leaving Bird with a sour taste in her mouth.

"Use him, you mean?"

"We all use each other in one way or another, Bird."

"I won't do that –not to him. I think I've screwed his life up enough…" She shook her head, knowing the entirety of the blame wasn't on her, "We've done enough to each other."

"Your decision." Erin held her hands up in surrender, "I'm just saying that you need to be looking out for yourself and keeping people that are well respected in the community close, is a good start. Having the right people willing to bend their morals and the truth in your favor goes a long way to keeping yourself out serious trouble."

Leaning down some to get a better look at Bird's face and try to get her to make eye contact, Erin added, "Just like before, when they brought homicide charges against you, I told you to keep Jim Gordon, that detective friend of yours, close. That having someone on the inside of the GCPD really being on your side could be a saving grace."

"I did keep Jim close!" Bird growled under her breath, as she geared up to argue that she wasn't going to use him either –someone cleared their throat from behind her.

Bird whirled around to see Jim.  
She wasn't sure how long he'd been standing there, but she gathered from the angered and pained look of betrayal on his face that he must have been there for quite some time.

Her eyes met his and she could practically see the thoughts running through his head as if they were stamped right on his face.  
Regretting ever spending so much visiting her in Arkham and probably kicking himself for ever thinking there was anything redeemable about her.

What she wouldn't give to just take back the last couple minutes of conversation.  
In that moment, seeing the hurt look in his eyes –she'd have given every penny she owned to reverse the clocks.

"Jim…" Bird breathed, starting a sentence that she had no idea how to finish.

"Detective Gordon." Erin greeted him as if he hadn't just stumbled upon them talking about him, she walked in front of Bird and broke the staring contest between them, "I think your department has taken up enough of my clients time for today, so unless someone is finally ready to question her, I'm going to have to insist that we reschedule-"

"We're ready." He gruffly interrupted as he nodded for them to follow him towards one of the interrogation rooms.

After he showed them into the room, he turned to leave without another word to either of them.

"Jim?" Bird asked, her voice a little unsteady, "Where are you going?"

"I've got work to do." He replied with a heavy sigh, as if it was now a burden to just be in the same room with her.

"I don't understand." Bird admitted at the same time Erin reminded him, "You just said you were ready…"

"Captain Barnes will be here any minute." He let them know that he wasn't the one who was going to be questioning Bird.

With that, he left the room nearly slamming the door behind him.

Once they were alone, Erin commented, "Give him some time to cool down, then you should try and smooth things over."

"Why?" Bird asked, not even turning around to face her, "What's the point?"

"Several reasons." She shrugged, "But let's start with how much you genuinely care about him."

Whipping her head and looking at her from over her shoulder, Bird opened her mouth to protest but Erin didn't give her a chance, "I'm not blind, Bird. And I'm a lawyer, so don't think for a second that you'd be able to argue your case against me."

"Even if I did… care…" She swallowed and turned to face her, before shrugging in defeat and asking, "You know those people you meet and it doesn't matter if they're in your life for a week or ten years –somehow you end up better for just knowing them?"

When Erin nodded, Bird's head cocked to the side and she finished, "I'm the exact opposite. I can just cross paths someone and their lives end up infinitely altered for the worst."

"Causing destruction on catastrophic scales?" Erin's painted red lips curved up into a smile, "You're just one person."

"Maybe some people are just born sick." Bird shrugged as she pulled a chair away from the table to sit down, "And they just go through lives spreading it around like a virus to everyone who gets too close."

Sitting down next to her, Erin warned, "You need to pull it together. Now isn't the time to have some emotional collapse. That will just have to wait until later when you're behind closed doors and out of the public eye, got it?"

"I'm not going to have some breakdown." Bird argued with her, as she reached up and felt the freshly cut ends of her newer shorter hairstyle.

Her eyes drifted back towards the closed door of the room and as much as she tried to push the image of Jim's betrayed expression from her mind –she just couldn't.

She was used to having him angry at her –she'd even been known to get under his skin on purpose just to get a reaction.

But this was different; she hadn't just pissed him off.  
He was nearly as talented as she was at hiding emotions and keeping a stone exterior, but she'd seen past it. That or he didn't even bother trying to hide; either way she knew what he'd overheard had cut deep.

It went past his being mad.  
 _She'd actually hurt him._

"Morning." Captain Nathaniel Barnes announced as he opened the door and walked into the room, eyeing the two women he apologized, "Sorry to keep you waiting."

"Good morning." Erin greeted with a smile that looked far more like a smug smirk, "That's quite alright. I imagine you're still trying to get settled into your new office and role here at the GCPD."  
Leaning forward over the table some as she watched Barnes sit down from across them, she continued, "Which is why I'm a little surprised you didn't have one of your subordinates handle this little meeting."

Looking between them, Barnes admitted, "We're all hands on deck right now. Unfortunately, I had to fire several officers my first day on the job; bribery, drug abuse, extortion, racketeering."  
His gaze fixed on Bird when he added, "Many things are no longer being tolerated around here, Miss Wayne."

Erin arched a brow, "Cleaning up the department _and_ the city?" She let out a low whistle, "Sounds like you've got your work cut out for you."

Before he could reply, Erin explained, "Let's cut to the chase then, shall we? Bottom line is you have no evidence of my client's involvement or she'd be in cuffs right now. She has an alibi for the night in question and no plausible reason for wanting Hobbs dead. Besides, from what I've heard you should be out there looking for Victor Zsasz."

"We are." He said with an abrupt nod, "But the attack on the campaign headquarters was carried out by two assailants. One of them has indeed been identified as Victor Zsasz. The second, however, was female."

Bird kept the same expression on her face, not looking at all phased by his words.

The knowledge of someone else being there had to have come from Hobbs after the police moved him into protective custody, she had ran into the room where he was to warn Victor of the GCPD's descent on the building.  
All of his security detail had been killed and the strike-force would have barely caught a glimpse of her as she fled the scene.

She'd worn gloves and shielded her face with a bandana, the only person capable of actually identifying her would have been Jim Gordon. But she knew he wasn't going to say anything to anyone –admitting that would be an admission that he'd willingly let a criminal flee a crime scene and how he'd sat on that information for days after the fact.

"I'm sorry?" Erin's sharp laugh cut through the otherwise silent room, "You're admitting that the only lead you have on the case is that the second suspect is female? That's hardly a leg to stand on."

"It's certainly a start." Barnes argued, keeping his sights on Bird, "Miss Wayne, where were you the night Hobbs' office was under attack?"

"At my house." Bird stated.

"The house you own and share with District Attorney, Harvey Dent?"

"That would be the one." She nodded.

"I believe your officers already got his statement." Erin chimed in.

Ignoring her, Barnes questioned, "Did you leave the house at all that night? Maybe even stepped out pick up the mail or run to a gas station… pick up dinner? Anything?"

"No." Bird answered, "We pretty much spent the whole night talking. We stayed in."

"Talked the entire night away?" His eyebrows lifted.

"We, uh…" Bird breathed, letting the heartache she was still feeling show on the surface as her eyes drifted down to her engagement ring, "We called off our wedding a little while ago and we're just trying to figure out where we stand now. You know, if there's any chance that we could work past this. If we really decide to go our separate ways then there's the matter of the house we bought together. One night of talking doesn't even begin to cover everything we need to figure out."

Laying her hand on Bird's arm, Erin stopped her from talking and said, "I don't see how opening these fresh wounds could be pertinent to your case."

"No, it's okay." Bird argued, trying her best to seem genuine and ready to cooperate with the investigation, "I'll answer whatever he wants me to. I just want to get this over with."

Opening the folder he'd brought into the room with him, Barnes glanced over the notes from his uniformed officers they'd jotted down while talking to Harvey Dent.

Trying to make her slip up he asked, "Where'd you go out for dinner?"

"We didn't." Bird sighed.

"You ordered in?"

"We cooked risotto." Bird rubbed her forehead, "Lemon and asparagus risotto if you want specifics."

"I see." He nodded, barely even blinking as he tried to unnerve her, "Risotto… what all goes into that?"

"Vegetable stock, onion, rice, dry white wine, cheese…" Bird looked down, "Harvey complains that I use too much cheese, but I don't really think 'too much cheese' is even a possible problem to have."

Erin opened her mouth to complain about the line of questioning, fearing by the look on Bird's face that she might start to come undone.

"Honestly, Captain if you really want to know how to cook risotto –you should take a cooking class. That's what we did a while back, we took a couples cooking class." Bird explained, adjusting in her seat and clearly growing more uncomfortable by the second.

The class they'd taken together had been back when things were still going great between them, it wasn't too long after they'd gotten engaged.  
The risotto recipe was one they'd picked up from the class and both really loved, which is why she figured he'd told the police that's what they'd cooked.  
It was probably the first thing that had come to mind.

"I'm going to hit pause here." Erin spoke up, "My client has been more than willing to cooperate with your little interrogation here, but I'm going to just call this what it is –a fishing expedition. You have nothing and so you're hoping to trip her up, catch her in a lie. Which you won't because she's telling the truth."

Looking over to her client, she instructed, "Let's go. They've taken up enough of our time."

Captain Barnes rose to his feet and watched as the women across the table stood up.  
In truth he knew he didn't have evidence to bring any charges against her, he'd known it all along.

But he also could feel it in his gut that Bird was guilty.  
He'd was sure he'd had her pegged the moment he walked into the room and laid eyes on her –even more so as he'd sat right across the table from her.

There was a coldness about her, even when she seemed to be getting emotional in speaking about Harvey Dent –there was an hollowness behind her expression that she couldn't entirely cover.  
"I know you've probably led yourself to believe that you're untouchable, Miss Wayne; but it's a new era in Gotham and no one is above the law. I don't care how much money or influence your family has or how many high priced lawyers you carry in your pockets. You and Penguin and everyone else involved will pay for your crimes." He cautioned.

"Bird." She corrected, as she slowly raised her head to make eye contact with him, "My name is Bird."

And there it was, Barnes thought to himself, the real Starling Wayne.  
For a moment; however brief and fleeting it may have been –he saw past the calm and vulnerable exterior her lawyer had coached her into.

He could feel the coldness from where he was standing; surely she had certain degree of ice running through her veins, with a void somewhere inside that couldn't be reached by any worldly sentiment.

And just as fast, the icy darkness gave way to a soft and exposed countenance; eyes glistening with emotions that mere seconds ago he didn't believe her capable of possessing.

"Untouchable?" She quietly repeated back with her lips and chin wavering, "It wasn't all that long ago that I was doing time in Arkham for someone else's crimes. Believe me, Captain Barnes, I know very well that I'm not above the law –but I haven't done anything wrong."

It took him a few seconds to pull his eyes away from her entrancing stare, and a few more to remind himself of who he was dealing with –that she was a criminal.

She was good, that was for sure; being able to look right into someone's eyes and sell a lie that easily was natural talent.  
The ability to effortlessly manipulate and bend others views of her at will made her dangerous.

"The next time you call my client in for questioning, you'd better have some actual evidence. She has been through enough pain and suffering –it might have been before you time that the GCPD botched the criminal investigation earlier this year, but bringing her in for a crime simply because you're looking for a female suspect is bordering on harassment." Erin sharply cut each word as if etched in stone, "If this happens again –I'll file an injunction with the court."

"Harassment?" He nearly choked on the laugh he tried to hold at bay.

Erin Windsor was one of the best criminal defense attorneys in Gotham City.  
Just the thoughts of how many dangerous, lowlife scumbags were out lurking the streets because of her caused his own blood to run cold.  
She, herself, should be behind bars.

Just as they reached the door of the room, he wasn't able to hold his silence any longer and disgust seeped into his every word when he questioned, "How do you even sleep at night, Ms. Windsor?"

"Naked, usually." She smirked, as she turned back to face his direction, "In my three bedroom penthouse, atop seven hundred dollar Egyptian cotton satin sheets."  
Her lips angled up further and she added, "And four nights a week wrapped in the arms of my 6'2" Amazon goddess girlfriend."

Bird ran her tongue across her bottom lip and tried her best not to laugh at the stunned expression on Barnes' face.

"I think we're done here." Erin stated, spinning on her heels and pulling the door to the room open, then nodding for Bird to go out ahead of her.

Once they crossed over the threshold of the main doors to the building and Bird pulled in a breath of fresh air, she cracked a smile and turned to face Erin as she complimented, "You are amazing, you know that?"

Smiling back Erin laughed, "So I've been told."

The lighthearted, victorious moment between them quickly faded when Bird caught brief glimpse of Jim through the doors of the police station, before he turned and walked away.

Not sure what had caused Bird's mood to take a nosedive, Erin led her down the steps and onto the sidewalk as she assured her, "You've got nothing to worry about. Barnes is just trying to rattle you –see if you'll slip up."

"I know." Bird managed a nod.

"Gotham chews up and spits out self-righteous men like him every single day." Erin furthered, "How the hell he thinks he's going to uphold the law when half the people working for him break it on a daily basis is entirely beyond me. But that's not our problem- "

"We've got a problem?" Bird questioned, "You just told me I've got nothing to worry about."

"Cards on the table?" Erin asked, even though it was more of a statement, "I warned you earlier about how Penguin's days of ruling are numbered and when he falls –whether it's at the hand of criminals or GCPD… everyone around him is going to feel the sting."

"Then I guess the people around him need to make sure that doesn't happen." Bird stubbornly shrugged.

"I think you're failing to grasp how dire a situation your friendship with him could put you in." She cautioned.

"Oswald is…" Bird's jaw tensed, "Has always been the one person I won't abandon, okay? His life holds more value to me than anything else."

"I thought that degree of loyalty was discontinued centuries ago." Erin commented, shaking her head, "I can't tell you how to live your life. All I can do is warn you that you've booked a seat on a train that's headed off the tracks."

"Then I guess you're going to make even more money from me, huh?" Bird joked.

"Not if you wind up dead."

"You know…" Bird breathed, tucking her short hair behind her ears, "I used to tell him all the time he was going to get us killed." A sentimental smile gently displayed her dimples, "I guess somewhere along the line I made peace with that."

"I don't understand it." Erin admitted, "I can't even begin to understand it."  
Her eyes drifted past Bird and she pulled her car keys from her pocket and said, "I'll wait for you in the car."

With a confused expression, Bird watched her lawyer cross the street to where she'd parallel parked.

"Starling…"

Her eyes closed and she tried to pull in a deep breath, but it got stuck somewhere in her lungs and she wasn't even able to speak as she turned to face Harvey Dent.

Their eyes locked and the searing pain started back up inside her chest.  
The jagged edges of her broken heart always sharpened whenever she thought of him and now seeing him again, face-to-face, made her certain the pain would never dull again.

"Harvey…" She finally managed a response just before her eyebrows lowered and she nearly stammered, "What are y-you doing here? Are they questioning you again, because-"

"Unrelated matter." He quickly cut in, displaying a folder to show he was there about one of his cases.

"Oh." She nodded, awkwardly glancing around them and then over to where Erin was sitting in her car talking on the phone to someone and patiently waiting to drive Bird back to where she'd been staying.

She pulled in a deep breath and mentally prepared her excuse of why she wished she had time to stand there and talk but should really be going.

"How'd it go?" He asked.

"Fine." Bird answered; tucking her hair back behind her ear and looking around them again, "This Barnes guy doesn't have even a shred of evidence against me."

With that she jerked her head back and stared at him with narrowed eyes, "And who could really argue about my alibi? You know, since respectable District Attorney Harvey Dent can verify it."

She watched his jaw tense.

"Why'd you lie?" Bird pushed.

"I don't know." He admitted with a heavy breath and shoulders that sunk forward, "GCPD showed up looking for you and asking questions about the other night when all the mayoral candidates were targeted and next thing I know I'd created this elaborate story of why you couldn't have possibly been involved."

"You shouldn't have done it, Harvey." Bird's lips pursed into a thin line, "And clearly you covered for me because you think I was involved."

"Were you?"  
Now it was his eyes that squinted as he closely watched her.

"I didn't do anything wrong." She stated with enough conviction that it was difficult to not buy into the notion.  
Maybe somewhere deep down she believed it herself, but he knew her better than that and he also know that she'd reunited with Oswald Cobblepot.

Harvey's gaze dropped down to the sidewalk and he bit down on the side of his tongue.  
Broken up or not –he hadn't expected the progress they'd made to disappear and her so easily revert back to a time where she'd spill one lie after another to him.

"Okay." He nodded, deciding it wasn't worth an argument and truth be told he really didn't want to know the exact details and extent of her involvement in any crimes.  
He cleared his throat, "I won't do it again, Starling."

"I never asked you to in the first place." She copped an attitude.

What was it lately with everyone thinking she expected them to protect her?  
She'd never asked anyone for that.

His eyes searched her irritated expression and his heart dropped.

It was just the night before that he'd gotten call from Alfred, wanting to know if he'd seen her lately or if they were still in touch.  
Apparently, Bird had showed up Wayne Manor –cut her hair off in the bathroom and then proceeded to lecture her brother about how her personal criminal code of ethics.

 _It was as if she'd gone mad_ , Alfred had told him; he was worried about her and the encounter had left Bruce badly shaken.  
Whatever was going on with Bird, it was becoming clearer and clearer that she wasn't in her right mind.

That knowledge probably played a hand in why he'd so quickly lied to the police to cover for her and then called her lawyer to further protect Bird when she wouldn't answer his phone calls.  
He didn't want to see her pay the price for something she'd done when she wasn't herself.

He knew she'd brought her own fair share of issues to their relationship, but Harvey also couldn't help but feel an amount of guilt over how far Bird seemed to have fallen.

"I, uh…" He cleared this throat again, finding it harder and harder to speak to her, "I should get in there and take care of this." He held the folder up again.

"Yeah, I shouldn't keep Erin waiting." Bird agreed, thinking the entire morning had been a colossal waste of time.

Just as he turned to leave, she pinned her eyes shut knowing the next topic of conversation wasn't going to go well, but it still needed to be done.

"Harvey, wait."

When he turned back around to face her, Bird swallowed hard, "I need you to warn me if the GCPD is going to try and take Oswald down."

"You… what?" He scoffed with a stunned expression.

"The warrants are going to come from your office, so you'll know before they actually make a move. You have to tell me as soon as you know something." Bird continued as if she was making a perfectly reasonable request and not asking him to go against his own morals and the law.

"You're unbelievable, you know that?" His voice raised and he stepped closer, "One minute you're standing here telling me not to protect you, that you never asked for my help and now you're asking me to break the law and give you a heads up?"

"Unbelievable." He shook his head.

"Jim told me it was only going to be a matter of time until the GCPD comes at Oswald with everything they've got and that might not have been much of a concern before, but now they've got their new strike-force and Barnes and-"

"Yeah?" Harvey cut her off, his voice muffled behind tightly clenched teeth, "Then ask Jim to help you."

"He won't!" Bird yelled back at him.

"Neither will I!" His voice seemed to echo and bounce back off of every building around them.

Reaching up and loosening his tie when the city air became increasingly hard to breathe, he managed to lower his voice and add, "I can't, Starling… and I won't."

"Please." She pleaded, grabbing onto his coat sleeve to keep him from walking away from her, "You don't understand. There is so much going on that you don't know and lives are on the line-"

"What about Janice Caulfield's life. Hmm?" Harvey hummed, his eyebrows raised, "The men in Hobbs' security detail? What about all of them? Or hell, I don't know –the countless other people who've lost their lives because of Penguin?"

"Harvey…" Bird strained, "You don't-"

"I don't understand." He acknowledged, "Yeah, you've said that –so tell me; what don't I understand?"

"There is something big going on." Bird explained, "Bigger and more dangerous than Oswald."

"And what exactly would that be?" He asked, knowing very well that he wouldn't get a straight answer out of her.

"I can't tell you." Bird regretfully stated, "Partly for your own safety and also because every time I even the whisper the word conspiracy you get this look on your face like someone is slowing driving a nail through your skull."

"I don't even know what to say to you…" Harvey admitted, "I don't even know you anymore."

Bird's face twisted with emotion as she watched him turn and walk away from her.  
Cursing under her breath, she quickly checked for traffic before jogging across the street to where Erin was waiting on her.

•••

"Well?" Oswald questioned as Bird walked into the dining room where he was sitting in his usual seat at the head of the table.

Her eyes drifted over the spread of food, and then to his barely touched plate and she gave a shrug as she slid into a seat at the otherwise empty table.

"I think Jim was right." She finally answered, "GCPD is under new management and this Barnes guy is something else. He's even been giving the axe to cops who break the law."

"GCPD is the least of my concern." Oswald apathetically replied, swishing the wine in his glass, watching the red liquid climb the sides, he then took a small sip as he stared off blankly in front of him.

"I know…" Her voice trailed off, making it apparent that she had more she wanted to say.

"But?" He shot a look over in her direction.

"But." She nodded, "How are we supposed to find your mom if we end up in jail?"

"We stay one step ahead, Bird." Oswald simply answered, trying again to choke down another drink of wine.

"Easier said than done." She breathed.

Oswald closed his eyes in irritation at her.  
Right now, he needed support and he needed results, not for someone to be pointing out other problems that didn't begin to stack up to how much his mother meant to him.

Theo Galavan had his mother locked away somewhere where he couldn't find her. She had to be absolutely terrified and enduring more suffering that she should ever have to know.

He had to find her.

"Oswald." Bird finally sighed; either not picking up on how close he was to snapping or simply not caring, "I know how much your mom means to you, but having tunnel vision right now is going to jeopardize our chances of finding her."

His nose wrinkled as he practically spat at her, "Nothing, Bird! Nothing is more important than my mother!"

"I get it-" Bird tried to explain how important it was to keep his position of power.  
He needed to make sure tariffs were being paid, that count houses were overflowing with funds –money meant power after all; and power was the best way to ensure safety.

"Do you?" He shouted, scrambling up to his feet so fast that he hit his bad knee on the edge of the table. "Pray tell, Bird, what is it that you _get_?"

"Hmm?" He dramatically hummed, eyebrows jutting upwards and the vein protruding from his neck above his shirt collar, "Because it seems to me that if you were capable of understanding how dire this situation is –you'd be doing something about it!"

"I can't fix everything, Oswald!" She screamed back at him to the background noise of her chair crudely scraping against the floor as she stood up, "You fix this, you're the King of Gotham after all!"

Her cheeks darkened in anger under the light coating of blush Erin had applied earlier that morning.

"I've been cleaning up your messes for years, but I don't even know where to start with this-"  
Her screams were cut short as she quickly weaved to the side just in time to avoid the wine glass he hurled in her direction.

The glass hit the far wall and shattered immediately upon impact.

Jerking her gaze away from the splattered liquid running down the wall and the shards of glass reflecting the fire in the mantle, Bird's eyes were dark as she faced him.

"This is your fault!" He jutted a finger in her direction, "If you hadn't left me; turned your back on all we'd built-"

"Oh, no!" She shouted, frantically shaking her head back and forth, "You aren't going to pin this on me. This is on you; you're the reason Galavan ever came after me –the reason I got framed and thrown in Arkham. My entire life fell apart, Oswald –I lost everything!"

His nostrils flared and jaw clenched tightly enough he thought his teeth could break at any second.  
 _How dare she?_  
His mother missing; certainly terrified and confused, locked away in some dark damp place and Bird was throwing herself a pity party.

Ever since he'd so graciously given her a place to stay, she'd done nothing but drink and sleep; wallow in her own heartache and knowing that she'd allowed what happened to get to her so badly had him nearly seeing red.  
How long did someone really need to mourn the loss of a relationship with someone who was entirely wrong for them from the beginning?

"Boo-hoo!" Oswald hissed at her; nose wrinkled, face twisted and teeth barred, "You're delusional if you ever truly believed you had had a future with the likes of Harvey Dent! You've lost nothing, Bird!"

"My parents were killed, did you forget that?" Bird screamed, before she was able to pull in a deep breath and closed her eyes as she tried to calm herself down. Her heart was thudding painfully hard against her ribcage and there was a searing pain in her head from right behind her eyes, "Found out Falcone was my biological father and then he disappeared from Gotham. I lost months of freedom and was locked inside of Arkham Asylum. And where were you?"

Weakly throwing her arms out to the sides, she shrugged in defeat, "You were sitting here, on your throne –that's where. And then the minute you need help with something, I'm right here with you –where I have always been. Always watching out for you no matter what it costs me."

Vertical lines showed on his forehead as his face started to shift from anger to despair.  
Truth be told, he couldn't even remember what had set the argument off between them.

"Bird…" He breathed, his own eyes slowly closing as every breath he took now burnt at his lungs.

"Don't." She shook her head back and forth, "You need to grow up. When it rains it doesn't just pour only on you."

Still shaking her head she turned and started for the door of the room.

"Where are y-you g-going?" He sputtered and started to follow her.

"I'm late meeting someone." She paused in the doorway.

"Who?" He was barely able to find his voice enough to whisper the question.

"Someone who might be able to help us when it comes to Galavan."

•••

Bird walked into the bridal boutique and quickly dismissed the offer of help from one of the employees, stating that she was simply meeting a friend.

On her way towards the few private rooms, she trailed her fingers over the white fabric of the display of wedding dresses lining the right side of the wide hallway.

She stopped when she came across one of the rooms with the door closed.

Reaching for the silver handle she opened one of the double doors to see a black fur coat draped over the back of the white couch towards the center of the room under a large chandelier.

She glanced around at the wedding dress cloaked mannequins and then over to a few more dresses on a rack near the corner of the room.

"Hey, best friend."

Turning around, Bird saw Barbara just as she stepped out from behind one of the large, full length mirrors.

"Hey, B." She greeted back.

Displaying her bright white teeth with a wide smile, Barbara commented, "And here I was starting to think you'd stood me up."

"Of course not." Bird cocked her head to the side, "Why are we meeting here?"

"Hmm…" Barbara hummed, tapping her chin and pretending to give some thought to the matter before exclaiming, "Just think about it. Who would come looking for either of us here?"  
Putting a hand next to her mouth as if she was going to spill a secret, she added, "No one."

"Besides… isn't this place just stunning?" She cooed, holding her arms out to the sides and spinning in a slow circle, "This is where I picked out my wedding dress. Hey, you think they still have it?"

"I don't know." Bird harshly answered, "Why? Not like walking down the aisle is in your near future."

"Ouch!" Barbara gasped, her bright eyes growing wider, "Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed today."

"Someone is still mad over the hospital benefit." Bird countered, walking closer to her, "Or did you forget how you helped nearly get my brother killed? Or telling Jerome to kill Alfred? Or hell, I don't know, B… the fact that Jerome worked me over with a knife?"

"That last part wasn't supposed to happen." Barbara argued, her lips pursed into a thin line, "And your brother was perfectly safe-"

"Yeah, because Theo Galavan orchestrated the entire thing so he could rush in and the save the day. And what better way to look like a hero than to save poor little orphaned Bruce Wayne from crazed Arkham escapees." Bird's eyebrow arched.

"Look who's been doing their homework." She beamed, "Wait… is this why you finally took my calls? Because you want something?"

The silence in response to her question was the only answer Barbara needed.

Rolling her eyes, she passed where Bird was standing a dropped heavily onto the couch. With her arms crossed over her chest she complained, "The last time I was here they had champagne and imported truffles."

"Do you know where Oswald's mom is being held?" Bird lunged right into her line of questioning, which only seemed to bring Barbara down further.

With a heavy sigh she admitted, "When you said you wanted to meet up –being interrogated wasn't what I had in mind. I was thinking girl time, you know? Mani-pedi, maybe a little shopping, grab some dinner and end the night with a short murder spree or something just as fun."

A wild look filled her eyes and she leaned forward as she excitedly exclaimed, "Ooh, I know; you distract Jim and I'll kill Lee!"

"I'm not helping you kill Lee." Bird sighed, "Where is Gertrud Kapelput being kept? Come on,B; help a sister out."

"I don't know." Barbara finally answered, watching as Bird sat down across from her on the coffee table, "I really don't."

"But you can find out, right? I mean you're staying with him and his sister… or at least in contact seeing as how they're the ones who broke you out of Arkham. If you just do some digging-"

"Counter argument –I like my head where it is, right here on my perfectly sculpted shoulders and I'm not looking to change that anytime soon."

Bird's eyes narrowed inquisitively, "You're scared of him? If you help me find Oswald's mom then you won't have to worry about Galavan, okay? I'll protect you."

"That's sweet, B." Barbara replied using their shared nickname for each other, "But I can't help you."

Galavan was giving her something that she knew Bird never was –he was going to help her orchestrate Jim Gordon's death.  
After all, if she couldn't have him then why should Lee Thompkins or anyone else for that matter? They were soulmates and nothing could or would convince her otherwise.

"It's all politics anyways." Barbara added, swiping a hand through the air, "That's why he wanted the candidates eliminated."

"Come on." Bird pleaded, "You gotta give me something here. We're supposed to be friends –the best of. So help me."

"I'd stay out of his way." Barbara shrugged, "That's the only real help I've got."  
Rising to her feet, she warned, "Protect yourself and just stay out of it."

"I can't do that." Bird argued, also standing up to face her.

Stepping closer, Barbara wrapped her arms around Bird in a tight hug then whispered close to her ear, "You want information on Galavan? Try worrying about _your_ mom instead of Penguin's."

Pulling back from the hug, Barbara planted a kiss on Bird's cheek before walking away and plucking up her fur coat off the back of the couch.  
Just as she neared the door she called over her shoulder, "Love you, B!"

•••

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 **A/N – Dun dun dun. :P What on earth is Babs talking about!? Lol. Thank you for reading the newest chapter and I really hope you all liked it. :)**

 **Thanks to Shadow knight1121, MzzLightwood, SmellYourScentForMiles, xxXWolfLullabyXxx, Love. Fiction. 2107, Melody Jane, Safirefly, Land of a billion lights, Katniss789, DancingDorisDay, Miss E Charlotte and to Guest for reviewing since the last update.**


	10. Sacrificial Lamb

**X**

" _It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are."_ _― E.E. Cummings_

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Trigger warning \- there is mention of a past sexual assault later in the chapter. It's not graphic, but I just wanted to give you all a heads up _.  
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•••

The first traces of sunlight had just started to set the windows aglow as Oswald made his way down the hallway to the room he'd set up for Bird.

It had been another sleepless night for the crime lord; hours spent tossing and turning trying to find even a few minutes of rest for his weary mind.  
What he wouldn't give for just an ounce of reprieve from the many fears that haunted him without end.

His pace slowed as he neared the large closed doors of Bird's room; despite their argument the night before, he knew she was in there.

He'd been told by one the guards that she'd returned home at a late hour and was visibly upset.

The last he'd seen or heard from his best friend was that she was off to meet someone who might be able to help them with their Theo Galavan problem; but since she hadn't sought him out after returning –he assumed her lead had fallen through.

As quietly as possible, Oswald, turned one of the door handles and leaned against the door to push it open just enough to see that Bird was lying in the middle of the large bed sound asleep.

He couldn't be entirely sure why he'd been so harsh and cold with her the day before.  
After all, time and time again she'd proved to be the only real friend and ally he had.

There were a million excuses he could make up; the top of the list being how he couldn't remember the last time he got more than an hour of sleep at night.

But the excuses were just that and as he crossed the room and gently sat down on the side of the bed he found himself thinking how cruel the reality of it was –how easily a person could hurt the ones they love the most; if for no other reason than simply wanting someone to share in the misery with.

With cold, nearly trembling fingers, he reached out and gently brushed some stray hair from her face while he internally swore that he had to treat her better.

If something happened to his mother, though the idea of feeling a loss that great burned away at his center, he knew it was a possible and likely outcome; but if he lost his mother then Bird would be the only thing he'd have left in the world that held any real importance to him.

Pulling his hands away from her before she woke up, he let them rest on the soft blanket he was sitting on.

For all of the brutality the world had shown him –nothing ever seemed quite so bad with her at his side.

Before he was even fully aware of the thoughts forming in his mind, his fingers violently gripped onto the blanket and his knuckles turning ghostly white.  
It was true, just having her in his life made the overcast city a little brighter, but how long until she left again?

How long before something better came along and she'd so easily leave him and everything they shared behind –just as he felt she'd done before.

His teeth gritted together painfully hard. With aching gums and a collapsing feeling in his chest he wondered just how long they'd have together this time before the next Harvey Dent came along and would surely sweep her off her feet, just as the last one had.

Where would that leave him?  
Cast by the wayside and waiting in the wings for when she'd finally come to her senses again?

"No!" He audibly grumbled to the near soundless room; that wouldn't ever happen again.  
Oswald cared for her in a way that he'd never cared for anyone else and he was done letting her go.

His anger quickly halted when Bird started to stir.  
With wide eyes he watched as her formerly relaxed expression turned into a grimace and she moved her head around on the pillow.

Which demons were haunting her dreams tonight, he wondered.  
Staying perfectly still, he waited until he was positive she wasn't on the verge of waking up before he stood back up to leave her be.

If she woke up to find him in her room, she'd surely be angry all over again.  
Mentally, he knew he needed to move towards the door.  
Vacate the room before she woke up.

Physically, however, he just couldn't get his legs to move.

There was black sadness he just couldn't shake, so strong that it felt like it had carved and hollowed out his very soul.

Everything was supposed to be different now.

This was the point in his life when all the risks and sacrifices should be paying off.

He was a king now –something he'd fought tooth and nail to achieve. He'd taken risks so big that he'd nearly gotten killed several times on his way to taking over the city.  
He'd even resorted to endangering Bird's life a few times when he deemed the danger necessary.

But that was all over now; he'd come a long way from being Fish Mooney's umbrella boy.  
He was supposed to be at the top of the food chain now –only it was becoming increasingly clear that -that wasn't the case.

He'd make Galavan and his sister pay dearly what they'd put him through.  
Only not yet, not while they had his mother; no, putting her life in even greater peril wasn't worth it.

For now he'd have to bide his time; do Galavan's bidding and hope that Butch would be able to get a lead on where they were holding her.

Once she was safe was when he'd make his move and let the streets run red with the blood of anyone else who'd dare rise against him.

Taking one last look at his sleeping friend, he turned to leave in hopes that when she awoke she might join him for breakfast and no longer be so angry with him.

"Oswald?"

Bird's hoarse voice was just loud enough to carry to where he was standing.

His shoulders stiffened at being caught sneaking about her room –again.

"Bird." He stammered, turning to face her as he nervously fiddled with his tie, "Good morning."

With a groan she sat up and rubbed her bloodshot eyes.

Not even looking at him, she questioned what time it was –only to irritate him when she didn't bother waiting for his answer and grabbed her cellphone to see for herself.

Sighing heavily, she began to throw the blankets off of her.

"Where are you going?" He asked, hobbling back over to the bed.

"I've got things to do."

His face wrinkled with the apathetic tone in her voice.

He'd take her fiery rage over indifference anytime of any day.

"It's barely even light outside!" He exclaimed with a bounce as he motioned to the curtains.

"You're telling me." She grumbled, as she slid off the mattress and took a few moments to stand still and let her groggy mind catch up to her body.

"Well…" He cleared his throat, waiting on a response from her.  
An explanation of where she was headed to so early –maybe even of who she'd met with the day before.

When Bird's eyes met his, she cocked her head to the side as she waited for him to continue what he'd started to say.  
In response, he impatiently raised his eyebrows at her.

"What?" Bird finally asked with bloodshot squinted eyes.

"Where are you off to?" He pushed in a tone of voice as if he were merely stating the obvious question and she was wasting his time by making him voice it out loud.

Ignoring his question, she fired back with one of her own, "How long have you been in here?"

He watched as her eyes darted towards the top of her dresser and the vanity where all of her favorite perfumes and lotions were lined up in neat rows of three.

Bird surveyed them closely to make sure nothing was out of place.  
She couldn't even begin to count the number of times he'd been in her apartment and moved her possessions around.

"Bird?" Oswald asked, drawing her from her concentration, "About what I said to you yesterday-"

"Don't." She stopped him, holding up a hand to further signal his silence, "I can't get into this right now.

"I'm trying to apologize." He defended, his mouth angling down at the corners, "Make amends."

"I can't." Bird breathed, unable to muster even a tiny portion of strength to deal with him at the moment, "Oswald, I just… I can't right now, okay?"

"Oh… o-of course." He stuttered, taking a few steps away from her and even as every cell in his body was screaming that it wasn't okay, he feigned a smile, "We'll speak later."

•••

Letting herself in the door of Harvey's office, Bird shrugged off her coat and dropped it into one of the chairs facing his desk.

With an ever growing restless feeling, she sat in the chair next to the one occupied by her coat and drummed her fingers nervously on the large booklet of information she'd brought with her.

The seconds ticked by like hours and she found herself unable to sit still as she waited for him to return from wherever he was.  
After what had happened yesterday, she had a feeling that if she called him to meet up –he'd decline.

So, she'd showed up at about the usual time he returned from his lunch break.

Her eyes roamed over the desk top where various folders and papers were scattered.  
With lowered eyebrows, she wondered where he'd gone to in such a rush.  
Harvey was always so neat and organized –for his workspace to be like that was out of character for him.

Standing up, she dropped the booklet she had into the chair and went around to the other side of the desk.  
Visually checking the closed door of the office to make sure he wasn't about to walk in, Bird then got to work rummaging through the papers and folders.

Until she came across one that stopped her in her tracks; on the label tab of the manila folder it read it black lettering, _'Oswald Cobblepot aka The Penguin'_.

Quickly moving it to the top of the mess, she opened it and scanned over several documents inside.  
There were addresses of places of interest; she recognized one of the addresses as an offsite count house.

She read over papers listing out crimes they wanted to connect him to and towards the back of the folder was a long list of known associates and other people of interest.  
Upon finding her own name on the list, her jaw tensed.

This was bad.

Usually the murmurs and rumors of the GCPD and the DA's office teaming up to take down a big player in the crime world were simply that –rumors; fleeting dreams and soon to be dashed hopes of the bright eyed rookies thinking Gotham had anything left to be saved.

But there she stood, holding proof in her hands that both offices were going to target Oswald. From the handwritten notes she'd glanced over –it seemed like the efforts had already begun.

Picking up the folder, she decided she'd come back and speak to Harvey another day –for today she needed to get the information she'd unearthed back to Oswald in hopes of them finding ways to either prevent what was happening or at least take steps to lessen the blows.

"Starling?" Harvey greeted as he came to an abrupt stop when he saw her.

"Harvey!" She called out in an unusually high voice.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, as he walked further into his office and shut the door behind him.  
His eyes drifted down to where she was so clearly hiding something behind her back.

"I needed to talk to you about something." She plastered on a smile, "But it's getting late and I really should be going…"

"Mhmm…" He hummed, walking closer and setting his coffee down on the corner of his desk.

Keeping her arm curled behind her, Bird watched his movements with alert eyes and hoped that she'd be able to make a quick break before he realized anything was missing.

"Starling?" Harvey asked, his eyebrows raised as he moved closer to where she was standing.

"Yeah?" Bird replied.

"What are you hiding behind your back?"

The hundred watt smile she'd been wearing quickly faded and as he moved towards her –she backed up.

"It's nothing." She lied.

"It's not nothing." He argued with her, moving even closer and nearly boxing her into the corner between a large floor to ceiling wooden bookcase and the wall it was sitting against.

"Stop it!" She angrily raised her voice while using her free hand to swat his prying hands away as he tried to reach around her and take what she was hiding.

He'd just grasped onto the corner of the folder behind her back, when he quickly jerked his hand back with a hiss of pain.  
Looking down to the red mark on his skin, he tried to keep a serious expression on his face but failed when a laugh accompanied his words, "Did you just pinch me?"

Despite her still narrowed eyes, Bird's lips curved up into a smile and she held back a laugh of her own.

When he went back for the folder, Bird complained with a chuckle, "Stop it, Harvey. I have to go. I'm supposed to meet someone."

"Why are you trying to hide a folder from me?" He pushed, still wearing the entertained smile.

"It's not important." Bird stated, using their height difference to her advantage when he tried to reach behind her again and she ducked under his arm.

But she didn't get to make it around the desk, before he caught up with her and after a slight struggle managed to pull the folder from her hands.

Turning around to face him, Bird backed up and winced as she backed right into the edge of the desk.

"What were you…" His voice trailed off and the formerly playful moment lost its light as he saw what she'd been trying to keep hidden.

"Harvey…" Bird breathed, stopping short of trying to give an explanation for her actions.  
It wasn't needed after all. So instead she automatically added, "I'm sorry."

"Are you?" He questioned, stepping closer and leaving her feeling like she had nowhere to go with the desk just behind her, "Your apologies count for less and less every time I hear it."

"You're going to get me fired if you keep pulling stunts like this."  
His tone was gruff and alongside the anger in his dark eyes –there were traces of sadness.  
Lingering touches of heartache that seemed to flare up whenever she was in his sights.

"I'm not trying to." She swallowed hard.

"Then what are you trying to do?"

With a weak laugh, Bird dramatically shrugged her shoulders, "Trying to help a friend."

"At what cost?" Harvey shook his head, "How much more are you willing to pay for your so-called friendship with Penguin? When is enough finally going to be enough?"

"Probably never." Bird openly admitted, leaving Harvey with a dumbstruck expression and at an utter loss for words.

He'd have given anything up in order for her to gain the ability to see the situation clearly.  
There was something about her bond with Oswald that always left her blind to see what was happening –or maybe just to jaded to care.

But it was hopeless, there wasn't anything in the world he could say to come close to fixing what was wrong.  
For whatever reason she chose Oswald time and time again; and all he could do was stand by and watch her make the wrong decisions at every single turn.

"You can't do this." Bird finally spoke in a tone just above a whisper, "I know you think Oswald is the bad guy in this story, but I swear to you that he's not and right now is the worst possible time to make a move against him."

"He is a bad guy." Harvey argued, his eyes roaming her familiar face, "He's a criminal. Countless people are dead because of him-"

Pulling in breath and doing his best to keep his emotions in check, he finished, "I just wish you could see the truth."

"You cannot do this!" Bird argued with him as if the hurt and sincerity in his voice didn't come close to reaching her.

"It's already done." He silenced her, "Or at least it's started."

"What are you-"

Not even giving her a chance to finish her questioned he explained, "Captain Barnes and Jim led the strike-force to raid one of the count houses an hour ago."

Seeing the stunned expression on her face, Harvey nodded, "Close to thirty people were taken into custody; and this is just the beginning. Piece by piece; Cobblepot's empire is going to be dismantled until there's nothing left."

"You realize what that means, right?" Bird asked, running her tongue over her bottom lip, "That it's only a matter of time before the strike-force comes for me."

His mouth opened, but no words came out as his eyes glistened in the lighting of the room.  
Finally, he managed to pull in a breath that actually felt like it filled his lungs and he leaned down closer to her face with his admission, "I know."

Diverting her gaze away from him and to the harsh midday sun pouring in through the blinds, she stared at the light until her eyes were burning from the brightness and not from the tears she could feel welling up.

"It's really happening then?" She asked, doing everything she could to keep from letting her trembling chin be noticed, "We're really on opposite sides of a war and you're willing to take me down."

"I don't want to." His open admission showed more emotion than he'd cared to have display, "But don't act like this is all on me. I never wanted this –but you made your decision. You're standing where you are because of your own choices."

"I suppose I am." Bird agreed, her voice having long since taken on an empty tone, "But you need to be careful. Talking about taking down Gotham's crime rings and then making it known that's what you're really planning –are two very separate things-"

"Are you…" Harvey's eyebrows lowered, "Are you threatening me?"

"No." Bird answered without missing a beat, her face twisting as she thought out loud, "Why does everyone always think I'm threatening them?"

Not giving him a chance to answer that over fifty-percent of what she says could easily be interpreted as threats, Bird added, "I'm just saying that you need to be cautious."

Placing her hands flat against his chest, she softly pushed him back to give herself enough room to step out from where she'd nearly been pinned.

Swooping up the booklet she'd brought with her, she dropped it onto his desk with a thud and said, "I had a state of the art security system installed at our…" clearing her throat and trying to ignore the slip up, "Your –at your house this morning and the team is still there working on it."

He looked down to the name of the security company listed on the book and then back to her.

"One of the guys is going to wait around there until you're home from work. He'll walk you through how it works and you'll need to set up a security code –don't tell anyone that code, not even me." Bird warned.

"Starling-"

"They're installing wall keypads in nearly every room of the house –each one has a panic button that will go straight to the GCPD so they can dispatch someone." Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a key fob and handed it to him, "Push this button and it also will alert the police –it can send your location to them-"

"A panic button?" Harvey asked, confused as he looked down to the key ring and questioned, "You really expect me to carry this?"

Bird stared at him, remaining silent as she opted out of telling him how any alarm triggers or his hitting the panic buttons would also send her an alert that he was in trouble.

"Starling?" He quietly asked, knowing that she didn't even go to these extremes when she was working for Falcone to ensure his safety, "What did you get yourself involved in?"

"These are just safety precautions." She tried to brush it off. Pretend like the stakes weren't really life or death.

"Safety… from what?" He pushed, "Penguin?"

"No." Bird answered, "You know where you stand with him."  
Her eyes drifted down to the desk where there was a newspaper open to a picture of Galavan from when he'd announced he'd run for mayor.  
"It's the threats who hide right in plain sight that I'm more concerned about –and you should be too."

"And what threats are those?" He walked closer to her, his breath catching in his throat.  
He wasn't sure if what she was saying was real cause for concern of more conspiracy theories –but something had her spooked and that worried him.

"The threats you don't see coming, Harvey." Bird simply answered with a shrug, seeming to be disconnected from their conversation right as he felt like they were on the verge of her being honest with him.

"So, you come in here to tell me you've had security installed in my house and I'm supposed to carry around this panic button –which might I add, looks a lot like the ones from 'help, I've fallen and I can't get up' commercials. Talking about some huge threat –but you're not going to give me anymore information than that?" His eyes moved over her face again, "And I'm just supposed to take you at your word?"

"Yes." Bird violently nodded.

"Why?"

"Because it's me." She tossed her arms out to the sides, "And just because you can't see the danger –or believe it's all in my head, doesn't mean that it's not real. Something –someone bad is out there and I'm a target, which makes everyone I love fair game to them."

"On that logic…" He held out the key fob to her, "Shouldn't you be the one carrying this?"

With a small chuckle, Bird shook her head and pushed his hand away, "We both know if I called for help that no one at the GCPD is gonna rush to my aid."

"This is me, Harvey." Bird repeated, "You know me –pieces of me at least and that I'd do anything for you and right now I'm just trying to keep you safe."

"Honestly…" He breathed, closing his hand around the keychain and dropping his arm to his side in defeat he admitted, "I'm not so sure I ever really knew you at all."

Their eyes met and he continued, "And you'd do anything for me? Anything except make the right decisions, huh?"

As she stepped closer, he caught the last hints of a sad smile on her face just before she caught him off guard when she rose up and pressed her mouth to his.  
Claiming his lips in a fervent kiss before he could even fully comprehend what was happening.

His grip tightened around the key ring in his hand, while the other hand landed on her side –his fingers curling into the fabric of her shirt and feeling the warm from her skin.

How quickly anger and pain could be washed away for even a moments reminder of how things used to be.

When she finally broke the kiss, she angled her face away to stop his attempt to kiss her again and as she caught her breath she whispered, "Your idea of 'making the right decisions', would have been me just doing what you wanted."

"I only ever wanted the best for you." He admitted, the broken expression returning to twist up his features.

"I know." Bird agreed, slowly reaching down and removing his hand from where it was still nestled at her waist.

Looking down she intertwined their fingers, just like she used to, before looking back to his face and openly admitting, "I'd die for you, Harvey. I mean that –I'd jump in front of a bullet headed your way without a single second thought. But I can't –and I won't live for you. We have two very different ideas of right and wrong and it doesn't matter how much I still care about you… I'm done twisting and cutting away at who I am to fit into the mold that other people think I should. I am who I am."

He swallowed hard, not able to think of a single word to say while he watched her pick up her coat and walk out of the door.  
Once she was out of sight, he looked back down to where he could still feel the warmth of her touch and hung his head.

She was right; they were two very different people and despite the theory that opposite's attract –maybe there was too much that was dissimilar between them for their relationship to have ever had a real shot.

Bird had told him from the beginning that they were doomed.  
He could still remember the night Oswald came looking for her at their house and before Harvey had run him off –her friend had left him with a warning; to enjoy the time he had with her because the clock was ticking.  
 _"You can only keep a wild animal caged for so long and you see… my Bird grows restless often –she doesn't do well when caged."_

Maybe the signs were there all along and they never truly had a shot at forever –but damn if there weren't moments where he felt like they could overcome hurdles placed in their path.

•••

"Interesting spot you chose." Lily pointed out as she looked up to see her biological daughter approaching her; she stood to greet her, but Bird ignored both the comment and the polite gesture as she dropped into a seated position on the stone steps by the fountain in the park.

Bird looked around, brushing her windblown short hair from her face and remembering the day she'd brought Liza to the park and sent her to those very same steps to cross paths with Falcone.

"Yeah…" Bird breathed as she opened up the small brown paper bag and threw some bits of bread out onto the pavement and watched as the birds flocked in to snatch up some food, "These birds don't eat near as well as they used to with Falcone gone."

Brushing off her skirt, Lily sat back down on the steps and looks around as a ghost of a smile tilted her lips, "He always loved coming here to feed the birds."  
With her head cocked slightly the side she added, "Not exactly what one would expect from a mobster."

"He wasn't all bad." Bird quietly added, not looking at Lily while she tossed out some more bits of bread. Blowing out a sigh, she added, "You know –except for the time he backhanded me across the face, and then the time he had my boyfriend beat so severely he ended up in the hospital."

There was a vacant look in her eyes as she further recalled, "Oh, yeah, and the time he strangled my friend to death right in front of me."

Turning some on the steps, Lily questioned, "Your friend?"

Nodding and starring off into the distance, Bird admitted, "More so mine and Fish's sacrificial little lamb. I didn't even know her last name, but yes –I considered her a friend."

Lily grew a little confused by Bird's choice in conversation, but somehow the harrowing topic was still the most civil talk they had shared.

"I'm sorry." Lily said, sounding sincere as her dark eyes took on a look of sadness, "You understand it though, right? Those situations like that are exactly why I never wanted you in this in that life. Why I didn't want you to grow up knowing him as your father."

"No." Bird stared her down, "I still don't understand it and I don't trust you."

"I hope in time-"

"Time?" Bird scoffed, "I feel like that's the one thing I don't have much of anymore."

"Why would you say a thing like that?" Lily asked, clearing her throat and glancing around them, "You're so young, you've got your whole life-"

"Only I'm not." Bird cut her off, "I never was young –you made sure of that. Because of the choices you made for both of us, I had to grow up quicker than anyone ever should. So don't let this body fool you –I'm much older than I look."

"Let's just get this over with, huh?" Bird asked, tossing another handful of bread out to the birds, before laying the bag down beside her and turning to face the woman who'd given birth to her, "You're back in Gotham because you want to get to know me. Ask your questions."

"My questions?" Lily nearly choked on her words, "I… I don't even know where to begin."

"Really?" Bird feigned surprise, "So in the over twenty years since you left me on church steps and just walked away –in all that time you never thought up a single question you had?"

Rubbing her forehead in a similar manner to how Bird did when she got overwhelmed, Lily gave an exasperated sigh, "I want to know everything there is to know about you. I want to know you –but to cram so many years into one afternoon… it's impossible."

"Maybe I should start then?" Bird offered, not giving her time to agree.

"One night, when I was fifteen –I snuck out and caught a cab into the city. The air in Wayne Manor was particularly suffocating that night and I'd heard about this huge underground party. I should have just taken a cab back home –but you see, after the rave I was still pretty wasted and I didn't want to get in trouble for drinking again. A walk in the cold night air seemed like a good way to sober up, and lets be honest, I didn't really want to be home anyways." Bird recalled, swallowing hard as she could smell the stale city air just like she'd went back in time to that very night, "It happened so fast, you know? One minute I was walking and it was starting to snow and the next thing I know someone pulled me into an alley. I think I was in a state of shock through most of it… but I can still remember the smell of his breath in my face, and how his hands on my body somehow felt colder than the snow covered pavement against my bare back and…"

Shaking her head, she gave a shrug and seemed to push the emotional response to what had happened to her out of the conversation and in a new empty voice she added, "And after he was done; after I was all used up –he shot me and then he walked away. Left me crying, curled up in a bleeding, naked ball on the ground like I was a piece of trash someone tossed out of their car window when they drove by."

It wasn't until she paused for a breath that she finally looked back up to see a tear spill out of Lily's eye and run down her cheek, Bird glanced down to her quivering chin and sighed, "Don't cry for me, I lived after all."

"I'll skip the boring parts about how I couldn't deal with what I'd gone through –went mute for months and ended up in a crazy house." Bird waved her hand through the air and ignored Lily as she tried to get a word in, "Fast-forward to a few years later when I was on the verge of turning eighteen and the nightclub I worked in got raided and a bunch of us were going to get arrested for one reason or another, they'd handcuffed us to a rail outside of the building while they tore the place apart and I couldn't get arrested. I was close to legally being an adult and being able to take off on my own and my parents didn't want me to. I couldn't risk them using this arrest as something to use against me, they wanted me to go back into in-patient therapy. Guess I didn't come out normal enough the first time."

Shaking her head, Bird skipped to the point of her story, "I couldn't let that happen. I wasn't going to be a prisoner in someplace like that again. So, I broke my own thumb to slip out of the handcuffs and escape."

"Ahh, let's see… what else…" Bird hummed, keeping a close eye on her biological mother's horrified expression as she tapped on her own chin and pretended to be deep in thought.

"Ooh! I know!" She began, "Rewinding back to me being a close to death and nearly frostbitten mess in the alley –I would have died if someone hadn't found me and got help."

"Maria Mercedes Mooney." Bird fondly expressed, "Though almost everyone knew her as Fish Mooney. She was one of the most amazing people I've ever met; she's the one who found me and because of her, I lived."

Lily picked up the brown bag of bread pieces and pulled out a few pieces before tossing them out towards the fountain and waiting on her daughter to continue. She had no idea where these stories were going –but it was clear Bird wasn't going to stop until she'd made her point.

"It was during one of my many escapes from the looney bin that I met Oswald. He wanted to take over the city and I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted, but the life I was living sure wasn't it. So we devised a plan to take Falcone down. Because of Fish being the one who saved me and her being one of Falcone's top underbosses… I was the way to get our feet through the door."

Gazing out to where the birds were still flocking to the bread, Bird said, "Long story short; I worked under Fish for years –the entire time plotting her demise and knowing that one day she'd inevitable die at one of our hands; and she did."

Standing up, Bird dusted off her pants as she warned, "And I loved her –at times I even adored her and I stood there idly when Oswald killed her." Bird followed her mother's gaze as she stood up, "That's who I am. I don't ever give up, apparently I'll do just about anything to get what I want and am unusually hard to kill. So now you understand what you're up against."

"We're not enemies-" Lily tried to finally get a word in, but she wasn't given much of an opportunity to do so.

"I know you're connected to Theo Galavan." Bird bluntly stated catching her entirely off guard, "And I know he's either the one who drugged and nearly killed me or he's somehow connected and I also know that he's holding Oswald's mother hostage."

"Take a minute and let it sink in." Bird nodded, "If I did all of that to Fish and I truly loved and cared about her –just imagine what I'm capable of doing to you; because your life holds absolutely no value in my eyes."

"You…you…" Lily stammered shaking her head back and forth, "You don't know what you're talking about-"

"I know that you're whole reasoning for coming back into my life is a lie. As you can see I have far too many of my own sad stories to give a damn about any of yours. You don't love me. You don't know the first thing about me. So you can either help me with the Theo Galavan sized pain in my ass or I will come at you with everything I have and if I find out you're planning to hurt Bruce or that you know where Gertrud Kapelput is being kept and you didn't help me –I'll kill you myself."

With that Bird adjusted her coat and briskly walked back to where she'd parked, causing the grounded birds to flutter away; darting off in all different directions.

She didn't let out the breath she'd been holding until she reached her car and was safely inside.

Leaning her head back against the headrest, she took a few moments to herself before she was about to start the car and there was a small ding from her purse.

Bird reached over to the bag and pulled out a small tablet. Swiping her finger across the screen to bring it to life, she watched as several smaller windows showed different rooms in the house she'd shared with Harvey.

When she'd told him about the security system, she'd purposely left out the detail about how she'd had the house wired with cameras –along with the fact that the video feeds live streamed to the tablet she wasn't going to let him out of her sight now.

Tapping the screen over the feed from the kitchen camera, it stretched to fill the entire screen and she watched as Harvey stood in front of the refrigerator for nearly a minute then shutting it and going over to the cabinet to bring down a bottle of top shelf liquor.

When someone knocked on her car window, she startled enough that she nearly dropped the tablet. Once she saw it was Lily, she darkened the screen and slid the device back into her bag.

"You're right." Lily admitted once Bird stepped out of her car. The older woman rest her hands on her hips and leaned forward some like she was struggling to breathe.

"About what exactly?" Bird's eyebrows arched in wonder.

"Most of it." Tucking her long, raven hair behind her ears Lily said, "I'll be blunt about this –apparently that's something we have in common. You're right –I don't love you."

Barely giving herself enough time to inhale, she continued, "Or at least I don't think I do. The truth is –is that I don't think I know what love is. I know you don't want to hear my sad sob stories, but you need to hear this one. Thomas was only my half-brother. Our shared father had an affair with one of the maids who killed herself when I was still a baby. He always blamed me for everything that went wrong in his life –like if he hadn't had this bastard child then things would have been better. Your grandmother, the woman who I grew up believing was my mother never loved me and she didn't make any attempt to hide it-"

"Is there a point to this?" Bird huffed; as if she hadn't just taken up the better part of the late afternoon telling her own stories.

"The point is that I don't think anyone ever actually loved me and as far as I know I've never loved anyone either. But I do know that after you were born… when they put you in my arms and I held you for the first time…" Lily swallowed, "Well, I don't know exactly what to call it, but I knew from that first moment that I never wanted anything bad to happen to you. I didn't want you growing up the daughter of a crime boss and so I took you and I fled from Carmine. It wasn't until we were almost outside of Gotham that it dawned on me that you might not be any better off with me. And yes, I left you – I abandoned you because it felt like any option was going to be better than the life you were born into."

Bird bit down on the side of her tongue and listened to how Lily swore she'd planned to come back once she got her own life sorted out and bring her daughter with her.  
Only what she thought would take months ended up taking years and the day she'd seen that her brother, Thomas, had married was the day she wrote him the letter telling him about the baby she'd left behind and hoping he'd find and raise her.

"I don't want to work for Theo." Lily admitted, her red lips pursing into a thin line, "But the last time I said I wanted out… you nearly died. I was supposed to find you –build a relationship with you and convince you to sign over Wayne Enterprises to me. And I was going to; but then I saw you and I just couldn't do it and so Theo said your life wasn't important anymore. That if you died your shares went to Bruce and so he and Tabitha framed you for murder and you were supposed to die that night, but like you said –you're unusually hard to kill and somehow you managed to get away."

"If he wanted me dead, why bother with the framing me part? Why drug me?" Bird asked, her eyes narrowed.

"Suicide." Lily admitted, "The idea was that you'd killed those people and couldn't live with yourself. Your shares of the company would go to a very devastated Bruce and your crimes would have brought shame to the Wayne name."

"And so then my heartbroken little brother wouldn't care much about the family business and be willing to sell the lions share?" Bird guessed.

"You nearly died because I strayed from the plan."

"You sound like that actually matters to you."

"It does!" Lily defended.

"You need to tell me everything." Bird ordered.

"I can't." Lily explained, "Not here and not now. If he finds out that I'm telling you any of this then I'm dead."

"Help me and I will protect-"

"How?" She pushed, her thin eyebrows jutting up towards her hairline, "You can't protect yourself. Your Penguin friend who is supposed to be some kind of kingpin couldn't protect his mother."

"Then what do you want?" Bird asked, "What was Galavan going to give you for the family shares in Wayne Enterprises?"

"Money." Lily admitted.

"Fine." Bird's jaw tensed, "Help me and I'll make sure you have more than enough money for the rest of your life."

With a short nod, Lily looked around them before saying, "I need to go. We'll talk soon."

"Wait!" Bird called out, grabbing onto her arm to keep her from leaving, "Is my brother in danger?"

"No." Lily answered, "Not that I know of. Theo is going to try and convince him to sign the company over –he has to be alive to do that."

"And my shares?" Bird asked.

"You love Bruce." Lily answered, "Not to mention Oswald. There's that ex-fiance of yours and that detective too. Theo thinks you'll be the easy stone to turn once your brother signs over his part of the company and if you refuse… well, you see what's happened to your friend's mother."

"Do you know where she is?" Bird asked, her eyes darting back and forth over a face that strongly resembled her own, "I don't." Lily answered.

••• **Days later•••**

Bird was sitting at the large dining table in Oswald's mansion, he and Butch were talking business and ways to quickly gather funds in the wake of the count house being raided and having lost millions of dollars.  
She hadn't yet told Oswald about her mother's involvement with Galvan, she didn't have all the details yet herself and didn't want to chance him making a rash decision.

"I say we take 'em out." Butch offered, as he stood in his usual spot next to where Oswald was seated at the head of the table, "This new force of theirs has caused us enough grief between the night we went after the candidates and then this-"

"We're not killing the strike force." Bird sighed, as she finally looked up from the tablet where she'd been watching Harvey in his home office going over paperwork for close to twenty minutes.

"I get it. You're fond of Gordon and he's the one heading up the strike-force, but-" Butch tried to suggest that they'd leave him out of it, but Bird darkened the screen on her tablet and let out an even bigger sigh; showing she was growing irritated at his not following her rationale.

"No." She groaned, as Oswald looked between them, "When Falcone was running the show, why do you think that plans to kill someone off the force had to be cleared with him?"

Not giving him a chance to answer, Bird said, "Brothers in arms and all that. It doesn't matter how crooked and dirty half the cops in this city are –if you kill one of them, then they will come after us with everything they have."

"She's right." Oswald nodded, his line of sight burned from staring into the flickering flames of the candelabra centerpiece, "The last thing we need to do is give them further reason to focus attention on us."

"Eh." Butch shrugged, but before he could give his counter argument they heard the click of high heel shoes against the floor.

Tabitha Galavan walked into the room and came to a stop, surveying the trio before greeting, "Hi Penguin."  
"Oh!" She feigned surprise as seeing Bird out with the rest of them, it was the first time she'd came by and actually seen her at the table, "Look who's rejoined the land of the living."

Bird's jaw tensed and as much as she wanted to say something to her –and even down right attack her, she knew all she could really do was sit there with hatred bubbling up inside of her –just as Oswald had to.

"What do you want?" Oswald asked her, watching as she trotted on up to the table and took a seat as if she owned them and everything around them.  
Then again, for the moment, the Galavans pretty much did.

"Why so glum?" Tabitha questioned.

"I lost a lot of money." He truthfully answered.

"Aww." She teased with her lips pushed out in a pout, she leaned further into her seat, "Poor sad little bread head."

"The money is immaterial –someone must have betrayed me." Oswald pointed out, "Someone close."

Even though they should have appeared as a united front, Bird shot him a look from the corner of her eyes.  
If he truly believed that was the case, this was the first she was hearing of it.

"You don't know that boss." Butch voiced.

"Oh, don't I?" He shook in his chair before spitting, "Don't I?"

"Woah, chill bird-man." Tabitha said, before holding up a stack of papers, "I got a job for you."

"What's that?" Oswald asked at the same time Bird guessed, "Who are we supposed to kill now?"

"Addresses of places that you're gonna burn to the ground." She slapped the papers down on the table and instructed, "Starting tonight."

"Arson now?" Oswald couldn't even begin to hide his disdain, "Hmm, sure. Fine. Whatever."

"If I can find a trustworthy arsonist!" With that his head snapped to the side to stare at Butch once more and Bird's eyebrows lowered at his sudden switch in mood and behavior.  
The only thing she could guess is that this was some sort of bigger plan he was working –or the stress of everything had finally gotten to him and he was close to a mental breakdown.

"Paranoid, huh?" Tabitha asked, her eyes seeming to come to life in the glow of the fireplace just off to the right.

"Comes with the territory." Bird shrugged, leaning forward and saying, "You know –with someone kidnapping your mom and holding her hostage."

"Yeah?" Tabitha's eyebrows raised, before she snapped at him, "Get your head together little man and get it done."

"Oh!" She exclaimed as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a metal box and slid it over to Oswald, "Whoever starts the fires is going to need this."

He opened the box –expecting to find a key of some sort, but instead when he saw what was inside his entire face wrinkled up and he stared back to Tabitha.

Bird leaned over in her seat to see what had caused such a reaction in him, then she saw sitting in the middle of the box was a human eye –clearly cut right out of someone's head.

Without another word to them, Tabitha got up and left the room.

Standing up, Bird leaned across the table and pulled the stacked papers closer and started to flip through them.

"Well?" Oswald squirmed seeing the expression on her face.

"Wayne Enterprises owns every single one of these buildings." She answered as she reached over and took the box from him, "Which means this is probably Sid Bunderslaw's severed eye. Security is tight in most of these and only a high ranking member of the board could get into all of them."

"We'll need someone who's capable of burning down entire buildings." Oswald started to think out loud.  
Knowing that your everyday pyromaniac wouldn't suffice; they needed someone with skills and probably even some specialized equipment.

"The firebugs from the narrows?" Bird suggested.

"Yeah…" Butch agreed, "The Pike brothers, right?"

"Excellent!" Oswald exclaimed, nodding to the stack of papers and beginning to tell them to get this job taken care of.

"Not that simple, boss." Butch argued.

"They were Fish loyalists." Bird explained, "They hate us. You'll need someone to get you in the door –to vouch for you, before they'll even be willing to talk."

Seeing the expression change on Bird's face, Oswald's eyes lit up –he knew that look well; as if a lightbulb had literally just illuminated in her brain.

"Selina." Bird realized, "Selina Kyle. Everyone in The Narrows knows her and the fact that she was on Fish's side before the end. She's our key."

Oswald nodded, so easily trusting and accepting Bird's ideas. Scrambling up to his feet, he smoothed out his clothes and hurried from the room.  
He needed to get money together, enough money to pay people who hated him to burn down a string of buildings.

Of course, he thought, of course this would come about just days after he had millions taken when the GCPD raided the counthouse.

"Great." Butch nearly huffed while watching his boss scramble from the room, "So all we gotta do is find a street kid –on the streets."

"This is where she's been staying." Bird explained, as she plucked a pen up from the table and scribbled an address of an old abandoned building down, "I pop in from time to time to see her. Set my purse down and pretend not to notice when she thinks she's being so sly and stealing the cash I've got in there. But hey, a girls gotta eat."

"You're not coming with me?" Butch asked surprised when Bird slid him the papers and set the case containing the eye on top of it.

"I've got plans." Bird shrugged.

"Just go to Selina and say you need her to vouch for you with the firebugs, okay? Just tell her that I sent you and we'll cut her in moneywise for her troubles."  
Slapping her hand on his arm she nodded, "You got this, Butch."

•••

"This is a bad idea." Erin complained as she sat down at the desk in the study at Wayne Manor.

"It's the best I've got right now." Bird rubbed her forehead.

Trailing her fingers over the expensive wood on the desk, polished so well that the surface looked like glass, Erin found herself wondering what it must have been like to grow up in a mansion like that.

"In what universe?" She asked, raising her head and looking at her client. Her stakes in the company could have sold for a ridiculous amount if she really wanted to unload them, "Tell me, Bird. In what universe is simply signing away your claim to your family's company the best idea? What is going on?"

"The less you know, the better."

"I'm your lawyer –I'm supposed to know everything."

"Good evening." Bruce greeted as he walked into the room and looked between his older sister and her lawyer. He hesitated in the doorway for a moment with the last encounter he'd had with Bird weighing heavily on his mind.

"Hey." Bird gave him a small smile, and Erin cordially replied, "Hello, Bruce."

Bird stared at the now empty doorway before loudly stating, "You might as well come in, Alfred. I know you're there."

"Lady Wayne." He said as he stepped into sight.  
After the last time Bird had frightened her younger brother, he wasn't about to leave them alone again.

"And usually you're the one who complains about everyone else sneaking about the house." With a smirk she quoted him, "It's bloody rude."

"Ah." He nodded, still not sure how to take her drastic change in mood since the last time she'd showed up there, "Someone seems to be in better spirits. Back to mocking me, at least."

"What's going on?" Bruce asked, his eyes kept drifting over to Bird's attorney. He wasn't sure exactly what was going on –she'd never had occasion to bring Erin there before.

"Well, Bruce." Erin began, "Your sister, against my better advice, is willing to sign over the entirety of the shares in Wayne Enterprises that she gained via inheritance with your parents deaths."

His entire face scrunched with confusion and an array of other emotions.  
After fighting so hard to hold onto the company, even during her time in Arkham when he'd tried to get her to temporarily sign it over –she'd not given in and now she was simply giving it away?

"In exchange for what?" Alfred questioned.

"Nothing." Bird answered.

"Why?" Bruce asked, walking up to his older sister whom he now stood a few inches taller than, "I don't understand."

"You don't need to understand, Bruce." Bird tried to give him another smile, but he could see she wasn't telling him everything.

"I want the truth, Starling." He proclaimed.

"Yeah…" She breathed, rolling her head to the side, "That's what you always say."

"The truth is –is that I'm doing this for you, little brother." She looked down to the paperwork laid out on the desk, already marked with her signatures and only waiting on his name to be signed, "I don't care about Wayne Enterprises, I really don't. I never wanted dad's company, but it means something to you. It's part of your legacy and you deserve it."

"Mr. Wayne?" Erin got his attention as she held out a pen to him, "We need your signature to finalize this."  
"And then Mr. Pennyworth, with you being his legal guardian –there is a few documents I'll need you to sign as well."

"Dad wanted you involved in the company or he wouldn't have left you twenty-five percent of it." Bruce argued.

"He left you twenty-six, Bruce." Bird smiled through everything she was feeling in those moments, "Even though I'm the oldest, you were going to be the one groomed to take over the company. I never wanted anything to do with it and he knew that."

"If he knew that then why would he leave you nearly half of what he owned?" Bruce pushed.

"Come on." Bird weakly laughed.

When it was clear her brother still wanted a clear cut answer from her, she pointed out, "I never cared about the company, but I do care about you. I remember the day they brought you home from the hospital. You were this tiny little fragile thing and mom told me that since I was older –I had to be gentle with you. That you were something to love and protect." Swallowing hard, Bird reasoned, "You still are."

Bruce's eyebrows furrowed as he listened to her. It wasn't very often that she'd get emotional with him, usually it was because of something bigger happening that he was unaware of at the time.

"For all of my coldness and lack of caring about much of anything –you are my weak spot, little brother." Bird openly admitted as she shook her head, "Together we own fifty-one percent of the company, so when it comes down to any big decisions we'd have to agree on what to do, since we'd have the deciding vote together. I'm pretty sure that's what dad counted on –the fact that we'd have to work together and my love for you would make me softer. Maybe even get me to turn my life around."

"I don't think that's the only reason, Lady Wayne." Alfred spoke up.

"It doesn't matter." Bird argued, "The company belongs to him and he should decide what happens with it."

"This is your life. Your future." Bird stated, pulling the pen from Erin's hand and turned her attention to her little brother, "Don't make this more than it is. Just sign the papers."

Slowly, he stepped closer and took his time reaching out for the pen.  
He still felt like there was more going on than he was being told, but with his sisters erratic behavior as of late –he wasn't going to turn down the opportunity to make sure the deciding vote would stay entirely in the family.

"We'll start with this one." Erin nodded for Bruce to come over so they could go through the paperwork together.

As Bird stood back and watched them, Alfred stepped up beside her and questioned, "Everything okay, Lady Wayne?"

When Bird side-eyed him, he pulled in a breath and pointed out, "Forgive me, it's just that the last time you were feeling this sentimental and speaking of the future was when you were convinced your days were numbered."

"In the letter my dad left me, he mentioned in it how he'd been feeling mortal, you know?" Bird looked over at Alfred, before looking straight ahead before continuing, "I thought I understood that, you know? After all for years I'd been flirting with danger –that's the life I chose."

Letting out a long breath, she thought of how her father must have felt –like some distant threat was looming and could come down on him at any time.

She admitted, "But that was different. Putting myself in dangerous situations day after day, was different than this."

"And what exactly is this?" He asked.

"A storm." Bird dropped her shoulders, "It feels like there's some big storm out on the horizon and day-by-day it's closing in and there isn't a damn thing I can do about it other than button down the hatches and hope it doesn't swallow me whole."

Alfred's face lined with concern.

"I can't explain why or how… but, I know this is how my dad felt. When he wrote those letters to Bruce and I and made all the arrangements for if something happened to him and mom."

"Now you just hang on a minute-" Alfred started to say.

"I forgive you." Bird cut him off, finally turning to face him, "For not telling me what you knew about my biological mother. I understand and I forgive you."

Her honest expression was met by one of utter and complete shock from Alfred.

"Alfred?" Bruce called out again, as he held out the pen for him to come and sign the papers that would finalize it all.

"Right, Master Bruce!" He quickly, replied before looking towards Bird and then walking over to where Bruce and Erin were waiting on him.

Bird took in a deep breath and slowly exhaled it.

For reasons that she didn't yet fully understand, Theo Galavan wanted control of Wayne Enterprises.  
With her brother now solely owning over half of the company, that would help ensure his safety. After all, if something happened to him and the shares went public –it would be nothing short of impossible for a single entity to buy up fifty-one percent.  
There would be a pack of hungry wolves both inside and outside of the company just waiting to snatch up what they could.

The only way Galavan would get control would be if Bruce signed it over to him and he'd have to be alive to do so.  
And hopefully before it ever even got close to that point, she and Oswald would have found a way to defeat him.

Once Erin had everything she needed to finalize the transference of Bird's shares, she bid them all a good night and reminded Bird she'd see her the next day before she left them.

"I'd like a moment alone with my brother." Bird stated, looking to Alfred –but he made no attempt to move from where he was standing.

"It's alright, Alfred." Bruce nodded, but he protested, "Master Bruce-"

"It's my decision." The youngest Wayne reminded him.

"Very well." He heavily sighed, shooting Bird a warning look before he left them alone in the study.

"It's getting late, so I won't keep you." Bird began, "But I wanted to tell you that if you still wanted me to train you to fight –then I'm in."

"You absolutely refused to help me before." Bruce pointed out, "Why now?"

"Because I think it's important to be able to defend yourself and the play boxing crap that Alfred's been teaching you isn't going to do you any good outside of these walls. That's why." Bird answered.

Bruce stared at her in silence.  
He'd practically begged her many times to teach him what she knew.

Starting from just weeks after their parents murders, when she found out he'd been trying to conquer fear and pain by injuring himself.  
She'd squeezed the burn on his hand so hard it had bled through the bandage –but in doing that and refusing to let go when he pleaded with her to, she'd told him to use the anger he felt to block out the pain.  
To focus on the rage he couldn't seem to let to go of and sure enough when he did as instructed, it was so effective that he didn't even realize she was still applying pressure to the wound.

Then when she'd came to save him when he'd went on the run from assassins with Selina –he'd watched her fearlessly stare down the barrel of a gun and manage to successfully disarm the assassin and knock him unconscious.

He'd begged her to teach him how she did that, show him how to not be afraid in a situation that had left him paralyzed by fear.

On the different occasions when he'd seen her display the skills he envied, he always tried to convince her to train him –but she always adamantly refused.

"What is there to think about?" Bird's eyebrow arched, "You've wanted this for over a year now."

"Okay." Bruce finally agreed, "On one condition."

"Name it."

"You have to be honest with me." He wagered, "I know you keep so much hidden from me for one reason or another, but I'm not a child anymore and I deserve to know my sister –not just the parts you want me to."

It had always baffled him how Bird could be so bluntly honest with him –about everything except when it came to herself.  
He was fairly sure the only times she'd actually lied to him was when it involved trying to keep parts of her own life hidden.

"Okay." She succeeded, "Just remember you're the one who asked for it."

"How do I know you're telling me the truth?" He asked, rushing after her when she turned and started to leave.

"Ask me something." She shrugged.

"That day when you had me get the ropes from your car –when those men were following you." Bruce recalled, "You had a gun. Why?"

"Self-defense." Bird answered, but just like he'd requested of her; she took it a step further to explain, "In truth I've never seen the point in just knocking threats down for them to pop back up later down the line. Some situations call for a more permanent solution."

"You mean kill them?" He quietly, but boldly asked.  
This was the part of the conversation where she'd usually shut down and tell him to not ask questions he didn't want the answers to. Make up some story about his being better off not knowing.

"Yes." She stated, "Better them than me."

When his blank expression was all her admission was met with, Bird reminded him, "I told you I'm done apologizing for who I am."

She gave him a few more moments to come to terms, before asking, "You believe me now?"

All he could manage to do was nod.

"Good." Bird smiled, but the toothy grin did little to ease his mind, "We start training tomorrow morning. I'll see you then."

* * *

 **•••**

 **A/N - This chapter ended up being longer than I had planned. Lol.  
But I hope you all liked it just the same.**

 **I want to take a moment to thank Melody Jane, Land of a billion lights, Kakkorat is Cake, Shadow knight1121, SmellYourScentForMiles, Love. Fiction. 2017, Amelia, Safirefly, MzzLightwood, DancingDorisDay, xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, Miss E Charlotte and to Guest for reviewing since the last update!**


	11. Blood Feud

**XI**

" _I will hurt you for this. I don't know how yet, but give me time. A day will come when you think yourself safe and happy, and suddenly your joy will turn to ashes in your mouth, and you'll know the debt is paid."_ _― George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings_

* * *

••• **flashback •••**

As the elevator opened on her floor, Bird stepped out into the hallway lined with apartment doors. Blowing out a sigh, she switched the small brown paper bag of groceries she'd been carrying to her other arm and cringed as pain radiated through her shoulder vibrated down her arm.

Audibly she let out a groan when her cellphone started to ring from her pocket.  
For the last hour she'd been getting calls from a few numbers that she hadn't recognized.  
She had a message from one of the GCPD detectives saying that he needed her to get in touch with them as soon as she possibly could.

She suspected it had something to do with what happened at Fish's club earlier in the night, which is why she wasn't the least bit surprised when she saw Fish's number showing on her phone screen.

Knowing her boss didn't like to the ignored and she'd likely get her ass reamed over it the next day, Bird ignored the phone call.

She'd gotten injured trying to break up a fight at the club that had erupted between two heavily intoxicated men trying to lay claim to one of the new burlesque dancers.  
As if the new girl would have gone home with either of them, Bird internally rolled her eyes at the situation all over again, Fish payed her employees well and made sure they were always taken care of.

She'd barely made it a couple more steps before her phone rang again; only this time it was her family's butler, Alfred Pennyworth calling her.

Just like all the calls before his, she ignored it and thought to herself that she was too exhausted to deal with anyone or anything for the rest of the night.  
As far as she was concerned, her priority was going to be a bottle of wine all to herself and a long, hot bath.

With that thought, she turned onto her hallway and silenced her phone.  
Just as she looked away from the screen of her flip-phone, she saw a man she didn't recognize leaned against the wall just outside of her apartment door.

Slowing to a stop she looked him over; business suit, long dark coat, buzzed cut hair –looking utterly exhausted and wearing a somber expression on his face.

Cop.

This man had cop written all over him.

Swallowing hard, Bird's grip tightened around the phone in her hand.  
GCPD wouldn't be at her door this late at night to talk about a fight at the club.

"Can I help you?" She finally found her words, though she seemed to be struggling to get her feet to move.

"Miss Wayne?" He guessed, leaving his post near her door and walking closer.  
Despite the question he didn't need a verbal confirmation when he got a look at her face.

After spending so long trying to comfort Bruce Wayne at the scene of his parents' murders; he knew he'd never get the young boys tear streaked face out of his mind and he was now easily picking up on the psychical similarities between the thirteen year old and his older sister.

"My name is James Gordon." He introduced himself and displayed his badge, "I'm a detective with the GCPD."

When he made eye contact with her, the feeling of dread rose in her stomach.

"I'm sorry to have to tell you this but earlier tonight, in an ally outside of a theater…" He stopped to pull in a shallow breath, but Bird didn't give him much time to figure out how he wanted to word the rest of the awful news he'd come to deliver.

"Are they okay?" She pushed, blinking rapidly and clearly trying to fight off the tears welling up in her eyes.

"No." Jim answered, "It appears to have been a mugging that ended violently. There was a shooting –your parents didn't survive. I'm sorry."

He waited for her reaction; expecting her to break down into tears, let the paper store bag of groceries in her arms fall to the floor, he'd even taken step closer just in case she herself were to collapse.

But instead she stared blankly ahead; her brown eyes wide with an unreadable look.  
It wasn't until a tear slid down her cheek that he knew she'd heard what he said.

There was a tightening feeling in her chest as the news fully sunk in.  
Her parents were gone.

 _ **Dead.**_

"Miss Wayne?" Jim cleared his throat, finding her unblinking expression more troublesome by the second.

More tears slid down her cheeks and she finally shook her head, "Bruce?"

Her expression suddenly turned to one of completed panic and her breath started to rush in and out so rapidly she was on her verge of hyperventilating.

"He's-"  
Jim couldn't even answer the question, before Bird nearly screamed, "My little brother? Is he okay? He was supposed to be with them tonight… is… is, h-he…"

Her mouth suddenly felt drier than cotton and she wasn't able to form another syllable let alone an entire word or a coherent sentence.

"He's alive." Jim seized the opportunity her silence offered, hoping the news would at least bring her a little comfort on such a dark night.

"He was there." His voice lowered, "He witnessed everything, but he wasn't injured."

"I… I have to see him." Bird stated, with more tears leaving trails down her flushed cheeks, "Where is he?"

Remembering the man who'd came to the crime scene to get Bruce and take him away from the horror he'd just endured, Jim explained, "He's with Alfred Pennyworth-"

"Good." Bird huffed, still trying to get the oxygen from the all too thick air around them, "I… I have to go… I need to see him-"

"I'll drive you." Jim offered.  
After learning such tragic news, he knew there was no way her attention would be on the road.

"No." Bird argued, as the ringing sound in the distance grew louder and louder in her ears until it was the only thing she could hear.  
And despite her insistence that she needed to rush to her brother, she made no attempt to actually turn and leave.

Instead, the dazed and lost look returned to her eyes and even though she appeared calm on the exterior she was fighting a battle inside.  
A fight against her mind threatening to shut down completely to keep the pain and fear away, to go to any measure to keep the terrible reality she'd just been slapped with from fully sinking in.

She'd felt this before. After being attacked as a teenager, she'd shut down so entirely that she couldn't even bring herself to speak a word for months on end.

"Miss Wayne?" Jim questioned, his concern growing by the second. Stepping forward he gently laid a hand on her upper arm, "I'll take you to your brother."

"No." She quickly jerked away from his touch and used her free hand to wipe her face then push her messy hair from her face.  
She couldn't shut down, not now.

This wasn't just about her. This was about her little brother who had seen their parents killed right in front of him, who could have very easily fallen victim along with them.

"I don't really think you're in any condition to-" Jim tried to keep his voice steady and calm, but it was clear to see that the young woman in front of him wasn't going to be easily persuaded.

"I know the way to get to the house I grew up in." She sharply interrupted, and even though her tone was harsh enough to cut through stone, steady streams of tears continued to rain down from her dark brown eyes.

"I have to see my brother." She loudly said, and he got the feeling that she seemed to be verbally giving herself a command rather than explaining to him what her next move was going to be.

"I understand." He nodded, not taking any offense to her anger that seemed directed at him for delivering the horrible news, "Be with your family tonight, but tomorrow I'm going to need to ask you some questions."

Pulling his wallet from his pocket he took out one of the cards with his GCPD contact information and handed to her.

With little more than a nod, she stuffed the card into her pocket and he let a few seconds of near silence pass before promising, "I promise you that I'm going to do everything I can to find the person who did this and bring them to justice."

"Justice?" She mumbled hoarsely, and fought back an inappropriate laugh, "You're new with the GCPD, aren't you?"

With a nod he confirmed her suspicions and she let out a heavy, rattling breath as more tears fell from her eyes.

"I'm going to see my brother." Bird repeated for probably the seventh time during their conversation.  
Only this time she didn't wait for a response from him as she shoved her bag of groceries into his arms and quickly hurried away –bypassing the elevator and heading for the stairwell.

••• **end of flashback •••**

"What?" Bird questioned as she faced her little brother.

Looking around what used to clearly be a gym that had been out of commission for at least a few years, Bruce looked down to his bare hands and admitted, "Alfred and I have been practicing with gloves."

"Mhm." Bird hummed, tilting her head to the side she questioned, "Do you plan on taking a pair of boxing gloves around with you everywhere in day-to-day life?"

"No..." He answered.

"Exactly." Bird silenced him.  
Reaching out she took one of his hands and said, "We've got to get you used to fighting with your bare hands. Gotta toughen these up, okay? If someone tries to jump you on the street, even if you have a pair of gloves with you –you're not gonna have time to suit up."

"That makes sense." Bruce agreed.

As much as his encounter with his older sister from the day before had made it nearly impossible to get any sleep and even through his disappointment in her –he couldn't deny that a small part of him was excited to learn what she knew.

He'd seen her bring down men twice her size, face down weapons without showing an ounce of fear and he'd give just about anything to be able to do the same.

But it went beyond just her finally allowing him to train with her, it went all the way back to when he was still a child and Bird was a teenager and she started coming home with bruises and black eyes.  
He'd watched his mom and dad grow increasingly worried about her and every time he'd ask what happened –she'd usually crack a joke about how if he thought she looked bad he should see the other person.

It stemmed back to all of the times he'd asked her questions only to be shot down and kept in the dark about her life.

To the time when he couldn't understand why their parents wouldn't let him go visit her very often after she moved out, or what she could possibly be doing that kept her so busy that she barely ever came back home.

To him, she'd always just been his big sister; bossy and impossible to get along with most times, protective and in her own way loving and supportive of him.

When he'd started to learn about the sides of her that she'd hidden, it was a hard pill to swallow.  
After all, Selina had told him that Bird had reputation on the streets –that people feared her.

Dangerous; was the exact word Selina had used.

 _Dangerous._

If he hadn't always felt that she was hiding things from him, he'd have had an even more difficult time believing that.

After all, this was his sister. The one who used to wake up extra early before they'd have to go to school to cook him the orange-cranberry pancakes he loved so much because everyone else added too much citrus to the batter.

The day after she'd gotten her driver's license, she got him out of school in the middle of the day to take him to see a movie he'd been wanting to go to –and then took all the blame when their parents found out and even got detention at school over it.

He couldn't even count how many times she'd walked from her school's campus over to his just to sit with him at lunch because no one else would.

How could someone who'd shown him more kindness than nearly anyone else be dangerous?

Since her admission from the night before, he'd been trying to push their conversation from his mind.

He had, of course, suspected in her prior resistance to answer the question if she had ever killed someone , that she wasn't answering for a reason.  
In his sleepless state, he'd quickly discovered that suspecting something and then having it confirmed were two very different things.

Alfred had killed people too –in war and under other similar circumstances; but he still believed him to be a good person.

Bruce wasn't entirely sure when, if any, situation actually called for such extreme and absolute measures, but he still believed that his sister was good too.

"Ready?" Bird questioned and Bruce tried to further push the thoughts from his mind and focus on the situation at hand.

"Ready." He answered, immediately leaning down some and putting both fists in front of him in a fighting pose as he limberly bounced back and forth on his feet.

Bird dropped her own fighting stance and watched him with a dumbstruck expression, wondering how on earth he planned to defend his own life like that.  
Reaching out; she open palm popped him on the cheek.

Immediately stopping, Bruce lifted his hand to cover the stinging section of skin she'd left behind.

"What did you do that for?" He asked.

"For your own good." Bird stated, shaking her head, "What the hell were you doing?"

"Staying light on my feet." He truthfully answered, "Ready to dodge a hit..."

"But you didn't dodge my hit." Bird was fast to chime in and dismantle his defense.

"That wasn't a hit." He complained, "You slapped me."

"Let's go again." Bird didn't argue back, "Show me what Alfred's been teaching you. Try to get a hit in."

Nodding, he bounced on his feet a few times to build his energy back up and waited for her to say when.

After nearly a minute, Bird dropped her arms to her side in frustration, "Bruce, what are you waiting for?"

"Your signal." He innocently answered.

"Fine." Bird breathed, shrugging and loosening the tension that had collected in her shoulders, "On the count of three then."

Eyeing him she started, "One… two-"  
When she slappedhim on the cheek again, he stumbled backwards, his mouth hanging open and eyes narrowed in both anger and confusion at her.

"What do you think is going to happen?" Bird scolded, rubbing her forehead and thinking this was going to be a much longer process than she'd anticipated.

"I expected you to count to keep your word and count like you said!"

"Seriously?" She huffed, "Bruce, if someone is trying to get you –trying to hurt you, what do you think is going to happen, huh? That they're going to walk up to you –bow in respect and wait till the count of three to make a move? No, little brother, they aren't. They're going to seize the first opportunity they get to bring you down and hesitation is the difference between life and death."

Not letting him get a word in, she lowered her voice, "Take a deep breath and a look around-"

"Why, so you can slap me again?"

"No, so that you'll realize that I'm not Alfred and this isn't Wayne Manor. I'm your sister –and this is Gotham. There are people in this city that want to hurt you –who wouldn't think twice about killing you. People who would gun two loving parents down in an ally and leave their son behind on his knees crying into his hands stained red with their blood."

"Starling-" Bruce cleared his throat. He got the message loud and clear.  
This wasn't meant to be fun, but he didn't see how that warranted her being cruel.

"The truth is that you never left that night. You're still that little boy crying on the pavement between our parents' lifeless bodies-"

"No, I'm not!" He screamed at her with his hands balling into fists at his sides.

"Yes, you are!" Bird yelled back at him, "Paralyzed. Frozen with fear-"

She didn't get to finish provoking him into fighting her –he charged forward with lightning fast speed and before her mind could even process the threat; he'd delivered a blow to the center of her face hard enough that blood almost immediately started to run down onto her lips.

But the one hit was all he got in as she blocked any further attempt he made to strike her.  
Block after block, ducking out of the way, weaving to the side, physically blocking and knocking his hands away with her arms.

"That's it." Bird smiled as the blood from her nose ran into her open lips and stained her teeth red, "That rage. Focus on it, harness it and draw strength from it."

"This isn't dancing." She grunted, recalling his supposed attempt to stay limber on his feet, as she dodged his fist and spun around kicking her leg out and bringing him to the ground flat out on his back.

With the air entirely knocked out of him, he stared up at her as she leaned over him and wiped the blood from her nose, "This is life or death. It's painful and it's messy, but this is how you make it in the real world."

When he didn't make an attempt to move, Bird ordered, "Get up."

"No."

"What do you mean no?" Bird asked, wiping her face again and wondering where that blind rage of his had disappeared to.

"You're right." He admitted, barely able to speak loud enough for her to hear as he still lay on his back, "I'm still the same person I was that night, Starling. Paralyzed. Frozen."

"You always will be."

Her words knocked the air out of him worse than when he'd hit the floor, but all he managed to do was nod and agree in a hoarse voice, "I know."

"Just like I'm always going to be that girl lying naked, bloody and freezing to death in an ally."

Finally opening his eyes back up, he looked at her with watery eyes.  
She never spoke about what had happened to her with him.

 _Never_.

Blowing out a heavy sigh, she sat down on the floor and he sat up to face her.

"There are some things you can't leave behind no matter how much you want to. There's not some magic word to make what happened disappear, no single part that you're able to cut out of yourself and get rid of. It's always going to be a part of you." Bird watched as tears started to pour from his eyes and it wasn't until she felt a tear of her own roll off her chin that she realized he wasn't the only one crying, "It feels like you're a puzzle with jagged edges and missing pieces and since that night you can't manage to put yourself back together. "

"We're broken, little brother." Bird choked out, not even trying to hold back display of emotions, "Probably damaged beyond repair –but we're still here. We're still alive –resilient even when we don't want to be. So the only choice we've really got is to keep fighting."

"I don't know how to get past it." Bruce said, sniffling as he tried to breath.

"I don't know that you ever will." Bird empathized, "Because that night changed everything for you. That was moment when you realized just how cold and cruel this world can be and it doesn't matter how many years go by or how many happy memories you make to help ease the dark ones –what happened that night will always be there, forever burning like an iron in the back of your mind."

"I can't promise you that anything is ever going to make what happened feel any better." Bird closed her eyes and willed her tears to slow, "But I can promise you –that if you stick with me and you learn all the things I'm trying to teach you, then you won't ever feel the way you did that night again. You will never feel that powerless, that weak, that little and helpless ever again. Okay?"

Nodding, Bruce swatted the tears from his cheeks and took in a few deep breaths in order to get a better handle on his emotions.

In a much stronger voice than he'd been able to manage for the last several minutes, he said, "I want to do something. I don't know what and I'm not sure how, but I want to do something out there-" He nodded towards the door.

"To what?" Bird strained a smiled, "Save the city?"  
It was a line she'd heard over and over from Harvey Dent and Jim Gordon; so much talk of cleaning up the streets and making the city a better place.

"The people." Bruce corrected, his eyes meeting hers for a fleeting second before he looked down to the dust covered floor, "But how can I if all I'm ever going to be is who I was the night mom and dad were killed?"

"Look…" Bird breathed, wiping away the last of the tears from her face, "I don't know much about saving people or cleaning up the city –I don't entirely understand why someone would even want to bother; it is Gotham after all."  
With a deep breath fueling her words, she added, "But what I do know is that even though you will always shoulder that weight of the worst night of your life, even though you'll always be that kid who saw his parents get gunned down in front of him… doesn't mean that -that's all you'll ever be."

When he was finally able to look back up at his sister's face, Bird nodded, "You can be so much more, Bruce."

"But you have to get up." She instructed as she stood up and extended her hand to him, "No matter how many times you get knocked down –you have to get back up."

Taking in a deep breath, he took a moment to let everything she was saying fully sink in before he put his hand in hers and let her help him back to his feet.

Once he was standing, he looked at the drying red streaks of blood on her face and with an expression as if he'd just been hit in the gut he apologized, "I'm sorry-"

"Make a fist." She interrupted, when he didn't immediately comply she demonstrated with her own hand and held it out in front of her as she repeated, "Make a fist."

Doing as he was told, Bruce made a fist with his dominant hand and held it out just like she was doing.

"Okay, look." Bird said, taking his hand and pointing to his fingers when she spoke, "When you punch someone with a closed fist, your first two knuckles are going to be what makes most of the contact, not your whole fist. See?"

He looked down and nodded as he saw how his index and middle finger knuckles stuck out further than the rest of his fingers.

"Now, you got a pretty good hit in." She chuckled, still aware of the throbbing from her swollen nose, "But if you strike someone with an open hand, the force of the strike is more concentrated and more dangerous to other person."

Unfolding his fingers, she tapped the heel of his palm and explained, "This is what you want to hit someone with."

Letting go and taking a couple steps back so he could see her better, she demonstrated, "Put your entire body behind the blow, lean into it."

Following her instruction he moved the same way she did, striking the empty air in front of him.

"The movement and follow through is more natural, you see?" Bird looked over at him, "If you were trying to hit someone under the chin, for example."

She turned to face him and had him make a fist with his hand, and she slowly brought it up to where his fist was just under her chin, "If you did an uppercut like this, remember the brunt of the force is only going to come from the first two knuckles. That only really gives you a small chance of landing a hit powerful enough to cause any damage or bring them down."

"Plus, you run the risk of breaking your fingers." She added, as she reached down to his wrist, "And your wrist is bent, see? You could injure yourself worse than you'd hurt them –and then you end up stuck in a fight with a bum arm and that drastically lowers your chances of winning."

"But if I were to do it like this-" Bruce followed her train of thought, and opened his hand as if he were going to get her chin with the heel of palm, "I've got a bigger surface area of my hand to use; a higher chance of actually hitting where I need to."

"Correct." Bird smiled, "And not near as much strain on your own body."

"That makes sense." Bruce couldn't help but smile back at her.

"So the next time you're gonna haul off and hit someone in the nose –same rules apply. Use the heel of your palm." Bird stated, then nudged him on the arm and added, "And stop apologizing –we're both bound to get hurt during this at some point. The sooner you make peace with that, the better."

•••

Bird had just gotten her brother dropped off at Wayne Manor and narrowly avoided a confrontation with Alfred in the process.

The butler wasn't happy at all with her taking over in teaching Bruce how to fight –but as Master Bruce had made it clear, it was his decision after all.  
He was even less comfortable with the fact that the siblings were disappearing into the city.

Alfred knew, of course, that Bird wouldn't intentionally hurt or let anything bad happen to her brother, but he'd been watching her spiral down for nothing short of months now and if she wasn't in her right frame of mind then she could end up putting Bruce in real danger.

Even worse, she could be the danger herself.

Just as Bird reached the front door of the mansion and opened it, she was caught off guard when she saw Jim Gordon standing there with an arm raised like he was just about to knock.

"Jim." Bird greeted, glancing up at his still raised arm and then ducked to the side to get past him.

She'd barely made it a couple steps when she could hear his footsteps behind her.

"Bruce is inside." She dismissed, thinking he must be there to check up on her little brother.

"I came to talk to you."

Coming to a stop she hung her head and seemed heavily irritated by just his presence that day.  
Turning around she let the annoyance show in her expression, "Why are you looking for me here?"

Her eyes widened some with a hint of playfulness, but he didn't miss the gleam of anger that immediately showed as well, "Ooh, let me guess. It doesn't make you look bad showing up at Wayne Manor –but if your new boss caught wind of you going to Oswald's then it wouldn't reflect well on you."  
A smirk pulled a single corner of her lips, "Typical, James Gordon behavior."

"I checked there first." Jim admitted, his voice gruff and mirroring her annoyance, "Your car wasn't there and last I spoke to Alfred, he said you were teaching Bruce to fight."

"Alfred's a gossip." Bird commented, catching the detective off guard in her shift from irritation to making jokes.

It was tough enough to make the right call in approaching her when her moods shifted so heavily from day-to-day. One day she'd act like they were friends and the next it would feel like they were strangers, other times he was left trying to decode her distance from whether she was having a bad day or he'd something to anger her.

"Seriously!" She exclaimed tossing her arms out to the sides, "What do you need, Jim? Oswald's expecting me back and-"

"Did you hear about the fires last night?" He cut her off, seizing the chance to talk while she was being about as friendly as she ever was.

"No." She lied, shrugging, "What fires?"

"The two fires… both of which happened to target buildings owned by Wayne Enterprises." His eyes narrowed in an attempt to read beyond just her words, "There's talk that Penguin's people were looking for arsonists recently."

"Why would he want to burn down Wayne Enterprise buildings?" Bird's eyebrows raised, "How could that possible serve his agenda?"

"I don't know." Jim admitted, "But I think you do."

She opened her mouth, at the ready to argue with what he was saying, but he didn't have the time to listen to more of her lies.

"Something is going on. I know it and you know it." He asserted.

"You don't know nearly as much as you think you do." Bird brushed off his accusation and turned to start back towards her car.

"Why are you teaching Bruce to fight?" Jim called after her, keeping on her heels.

"I'm teaching him how to properly defend himself." Bird yelled over her shoulder at him, "Why does it matter to you anyways?"

"Because you're always planning something." Jim said with gravel, "You never fail to point out how little I know about what's really happening in Gotham –and you are constantly working an angle. Working people over for your own selfish-"

Bird slowed to a stop and closed her eyes while she pulled in a breath she shook her head.  
She knew it was bound to come up sooner or later. His eavesdropping on the conversation she'd had with her lawyer and showing up just in time to hear that Erin had told Bird to keep him close.  
After all, the more friends she had on the right side of the law –the better.

"You're still mad at me." She realized out loud, slowly turning back around to face him.

"I'm not-"

"You are." She argued, "That's what this is all about. What you heard Erin tell me the other day at the station."

Rather than defending herself or telling him how he'd showed up to hear the absolute worst part of the conversation, she cocked her head to the side and asked, "What angle could I possibly be working by working with Bruce to help him get stronger and defend himself?"

"I don't know." Jim openly admitted, "But I don't like it."

"You get that I'm not training him to just fight –I'm not trying to turn him into a killer." Bird angrily said, "My goal isn't to turn him into me."

"Then what is your goal?" Jim stepped forward.

"To give him a fighting chance if someone comes after him." Bird admitted, running her tongue over her lips, "I used to think that he didn't need to know this kind of stuff, you know?"

"I mean, he ran off into the city with Selina last year and I used every contact I had to track him down. He was in a building with assassins and I stormed the place unarmed; without hesitation and I'd do it again. I thought he's my kid brother and that I'd always be here to protect him, that Alfred is going to protect him…" Her voice trailed arm and her posture drooped with defeat.

"Then what happened?" He questioned.

"I realized that he's not a kid anymore and he needs to be able to hold his own if something were to happen to me. If some threat gets past Alfred and close enough to hurt him, then I want him to have a fighting chance." Bird blew out a sigh and brushed her short hair from her face, "That's it. I don't have some grand diabolical plan. You know how important my brother is to me."

She spoke in terms of 'ifs' and hypotheticals, but the look in her eyes told a different story.  
The fear that something bad was headed their way was written all over her face.  
And as usual, he was left in the dark wondering what she knew that he didn't.

"If Bruce is in danger, real danger, then you need to tell me." He urged, stepping even closer and wishing that his words would actually break through to her, "Do you know who the threat is?"

"Even if I did…" She sighed, "It wouldn't matter because you wouldn't believe me and my talking about it would only endanger his life further."

"Why are you so convinced I wouldn't believe you?" Jim asked, his eyes honest as he spoke.

"Because." She shrugged, "Because Harvey once told me that I was one of the bravest people he knew and that if something was cause enough to worry me, then it terrified him. So, then I go to him and tell him we're all in danger and he starts to look at me like maybe I never should have been let out of Arkham in the first place-"

"I'm not Dent." He exclaimed.  
Taking a second to take a breath, he bit down on the side of his tongue and shook his head, "This is me-"

"Yes." Bird smiled but it didn't come close to reaching her eyes, "This is you. Hero Cop Jim Gordon –brazen enough to storm Falcone's mansion last year to try and take him in; knowing that he ran the entire city. You somehow manage to put your life in peril every single week. So then it raises the question of which would be worse; you not believing me and thinking I'm crazy, or the off chance that you do believe me. Then what? Storm the castle all on your own? Maybe get Bullock to tag along? You've got courage and good intentions but you are just a man and the thing Oswald and I are up against is a monster."

"If you really believe that; then how do you expect to fight and win on your own?" Jim asked, but knew better than to push her too far.  
Instead of getting her to open up more or even slip up, she'd shut down entirely.

"Banking on the fact that Oswald and I are unusually hard to kill." She laughed, but couldn't even elicit a smile from the concerned detective, "We won the last war and hopefully we'll win this one too."

"And if you don't?" Jim's voice had lost any anger he'd been holding on to.

All Bird had to respond with was another apathetic shrug, but as she tried to turn away again he placed a hand on her arm to stop her.

He knew something had been different with her for a while now, but it wasn't until then that he entirely realized just how vastly different the person standing in front of him was from the woman he'd met well over a year ago.

This wasn't the same Bird who'd mock his ideas of how to clean up the city and coyly smile at him when they'd wind up in life and death situations. No, that Bird always seemed to be sure that she was going to make it out alive.  
Even in the moments he was sure they'd reached the end of the rope, she never failed to have another trick up her sleeve. A back up plan that sometimes only she was privy too.

The person standing in front of him now was an entirely different creature all together.  
One with empty eyes and the taste of death on her tongue; a hollowed out soul and not an ounce of hope to be found, this was someone he didn't know how to reach.

He wasn't sure if the monster she was talking about was real or only in her head, but it was clear that she believed it was real and even though she spoke of winning a war, she acted as though the battle was already lost.

"You can't do that." His mouth was finally able to form words, despite the sudden inability to breath, "You have to tell me what's going on."

Their eyes locked and in a voice just over a whisper he pleaded, "Let me help you."

"About what you heard my lawyer say that day-" She started to steer the conversation away from the feeling of impending doom hanging thickly in the air around them.

"It doesn't matter." He was quick to dismiss what had been weighing so heavily on him for days.

"It does." Bird argued, with a ghost of a smile tugging at her lips, "Erin did tell me to keep you close. That being associated with people like you and Harvey and so on; made me look better. Less guilty."

Pulling her eyes away from his and looking down to where his hand was resting on her arm from where he'd stopped her from leaving, she openly admitted, "But I didn't even know Erin last year, Jim. No one told me to keep you close all those times I put my neck on the line for you. If you'd just listened a little longer instead of getting all pissed off and interrupting us –you'd have heard me tell her that I kept you close because I care about you and not because I planned on using you for anything."

Gently, pulling out of his grip she glanced up at his face one last time before she got into her car and drove away, with her words lingering in the air long after her tail lights were out of sight.

•••

"Finally!" Oswald airily huffed when Bird entered the large dining room.

He'd been pacing back and forth for close to an hour waiting on his friend to show up after her meeting with Selina Kyle.  
The young teen was supposed to see the Pike family to retrieve what they'd gotten out of the safe at one of the buildings they'd burned down for them.

They'd all been waiting anxiously to see what was so important to Galavan that he'd had Sid Bunderslaw's eye removed for access to the safe.

"Sorry." She apologized, "Got held up."

With that she walked over to him and handed over a large, antique knife and explained, "Selina said this was all they found in the safe."

"A knife?" Butch asked out loud what they were all thinking.  
How could one antique dagger be that important to Galavan?

"Yeah." Bird said as she sat down at the table and looked over to where Butch was standing and complained, "Three hundred and fifty dollars? That's all you said you'd pay her?"

"She asked for seven." He proudly admitted, jutting a thumb towards himself, "Got her down to three-fifty."

"A girl's gotta eat, Butch." Bird sighed.

"Hey, you wanna give away handouts to the kid then next time we need something –you go and see her yourself, alright?" He argued back, loosening his tie.  
Last time he checked they were in the business of making a profit, not charity work.

"I will!" Bird yelled over the end of his sentence.

"Bird…" Oswald said, as he finished inspecting the dated weapon.  
Trailing his thumb over the sigil at the end of the gold plated handle; he questioned, "Is this what I think it is?"

"Yep." She nodded, then gave a quick shrug to show that she didn't know anything else about it.

"What?" Butch questioned, looking between the best friends.

"It doesn't make any sense." Oswald answered, turning the knife in his hands to show the intricate carving to him, "This is the Wayne family crest."

"So what?" Butch asked, causing them both to jerk their heads in his direction when he didn't seem to be picking up on how strange this new revelation made the entire ordeal.

Dropping the large knife with a clank on the table, Oswald leaned against the arm rest of the high back chair positioned at the head of the table and asked, "Why does Galavan want an antique knife that belonged to the Waynes?"

When no one had an answer his hand trembled as he pointed at the weapon, "There's something here. Something to understanding Galavan; to beating him."

"So all we gotta do is find someone who knows old Gotham." Butch offered, "There's this lady who runs an antique shop in my old neighborhood."

When he was met by two skeptical expressions, he sighed, "Trust me, she knows things."

"Actually…" Bird cut in as she looked to her best friend, "I have to tell you something… it's about Lily."

"Your mom?" Butch asked and Oswald leaned over the table same to get a better look at her.

"She, uh…" Bird shook her head, "She's been working for Galavan."

A slew of emotions twisted up the sharp features of Oswald's face; his mouth hung open like the entrance to a endless black hole.

He sputtered several indiscernible noises and scrambled to jump up from the chair he was sitting in.  
Bird quickly got to her own feet, so fast that she knocked over the chair she'd been sitting in.

"Oswald-" She tried to explain, but the damage was already done.  
He was sure her actually plunging a knife into his heart couldn't have hurt near as bad as when her admission sliced him open.

Butch's eyes widened as he looked between them.  
The pair of friends had both seemed to be growing increasingly paranoid and unstable.  
It was just mere days ago that he'd witnessed Oswald beat the employee,who'd delivered news of the count house raid, to within barely an inch of life.

At times he wasn't even sure Bird was aware of what was going on around her.  
Her behavior was more than erratic and she switched between moods faster than one could hit a button to change channels on television set.

If he was being honest, neither of them were all that stable or put together back when they were working under Fish –but this was a different game entirely; at least before they seemed to have a grip on reality.

"No!" Oswald's voice cracked and reached a high octave, "No, no, no!"

"How c-could y-you?" He frantically stuttered.  
Unable to stop the thoughts in his head of wondering how long she'd been working against him.

He knew better than to fully put his trust in any one person, but out of everyone he'd always held the highest degree of trust in her.

"I haven't known very long!" Bird screamed back at him, trying to break through the jittery, nervous and rage filled mess he'd so quickly spiraled into, "I didn't tell you for your own good."

Her attempt to defend her unforgivable actions only served to anger him further.  
The dark crimson drapes were turning into visions of blood running down the walls and puddling up on the floor.  
The fire raging in the hearth suddenly felt as though the heat it was emitting was sweltering enough to melt the flesh right off his bones.

Both Bird and Butch caught Oswald's line of sight briefly drop to the knife on the table, before he looked back at Bird as if he could no longer even see her.  
It was just anger and rage present on his face now.  
An expression both of them had seen many times before he'd snap and blood would be spilled.

All three of them went for the knife, but Oswald managed to snatch it up first and he stumbled backwards to get out of the arm span from either of them.

With gritted teeth and wild eyes, he tightly gripped onto the antique handle and pointed the blade towards Bird when took a step closer.

"Boss, come on. You don't need that." Butch tried to reason with him.

"Leave us!" Oswald shouted, his nose wrinkled and the red blotches starting to show darker against his pale skin.

"Boss-"

"GO!" Oswald screamed.

Despite having been conditioned to follow Oswald's every order, Butch had fought and struggled against it once before when Fish had returned to Gotham and he couldn't risk his right hand man fighting against it again to come to Bird's aid.

"Just go." Bird agreed; knowing that whatever was going to happen was between herself and Oswald –just them and no one else.

Once they were alone, Bird's gaze fell from his eyes down to the where he was still clutching onto the knife.

She couldn't even begin to count how many times in the past year he'd became enraged with her for letting her emotions cloud her judgement and alter their plans to take over the city.

How ironic it seemed now, when the truth was that he was guilty of the very same thing.  
She knew he'd also fell prey to the weight of his own emotions; that he was capable of feeling things just as deeply, if not even more so, than she did.

"What are you going to do with that?" Bird brought her voice down to a suitable level for being in the same room as the one she was speaking to, "Hmm?"

She could see the muscles in his jaw tighten, but he seemed incapable of forming words and responding to her.

"Am I going to get a chance to explain?" She verbally pushed him.

Which only angered him further, how she could seem so calm and cool while he was pointing the end of a very sharp weapon at her.  
Clearly, it seemed to him, that she didn't think he had it in him.

His breath grew increasingly labored, each puff of oxygen seemed harder to pull in than the one before.  
It was usually way before he hit this point that he'd have grown numb, not care at all what would happen to the person standing in front of him; but not this time.  
Not with her. Everything was always different when it came to Bird –even when he'd wish it wasn't.

Oswald let out a warning hiss of air from between his barred teeth when Bird advanced towards him.

"Do it." Bird softly said as she continued forward until she stopped just in front of him and reached down, taking hold of his wrist and moving his arm up until the tip of the antique knife was angled at her heart and stepped even closer until she could feel the pressure from it against her skin.

She watched tears begin to gloss the surface of his eyes and cling to his lash line.  
He stepped back away from her, letting the knife fall from his hand and clank against the floor with his entire body shaking.

He looked down to his sweaty palm and rubbed his hand on the side of his clothes.

"You can't do it." She pointed out, "You can't kill me anymore than I could kill you, Oswald."

"You might as well have." He mumbled under his breath, looking more fragile and broken then she could ever remember seeing him before.  
"Galavan has my mother and if you've turned against me then what do I have left? Nothing."

"I didn't turn against you." Bird was finally able to explain. "I was trying to tell you that I hadn't known very long myself and I didn't tell you for your own good, Oswald."

Lowering his head he gave her a disbelieving look from under his brows –silently letting her know he wasn't buying what she was trying to sell him.

"I'm serious!" She exclaimed, "One wrong move here and we're as good as dead. Then he's got no reason to keep your mom alive. It will open the door for him to try and get the company from my brother and whatever else he's got planned for him. We have to be smart about this."

Shaking her head, Bird reminded him, "I seem to remember you nearly getting yourself killed last year because you made a move against Fish before we'd planned and I remember sitting at a table with Don Maroni while one of his men held your face to a meat slicer in the kitchen because you'd jumped the gun on that situation too-"

"Say no more." He sighed holding a hand up.  
He didn't need to be reminded of all the times he'd nearly gotten them both killed and now with a clearer mind he could now understand why'd she'd been reluctant to openly share her newly learned information with him.

But, the understanding did little to ease the sting still left behind from feeling slighted and betrayed by someone who meant so much.

Bird launched into explaining everything she'd learned from her biological mother.  
How Galavan was wanting to take over Wayne Enterprises and how months ago when she'd been drugged and nearly killed that it was Galavan's way of getting back at her mom for straying for their plan.

"I don't know how long she's known him." Bird admitted, "Or even how they crossed paths, but I know she knows more than she told me that day."

"Do you believe what she's already told you?" He questioned.

"I don't know." Bird shrugged, "I don't trust her, but she seemed honest enough in most of what she said, but then again a lie with a heart of truth can be sold easily… so I really don't know."

"Get in contact with her." Oswald instructed, "Bring her here."

•••

"I thought you were a goner." Butch admitted as he stood to the side of the table and watched as Bird sat in her usual spot just to the side of the head of the table where Oswald sat in a chair that was more a throne.

Tilting his head to the side he admitted, "Or maybe him. Possibly the both of ya."

"We weren't going to kill each other, Butch." Bird replied but she didn't take her eyes off the computer tablet she was holding in her hands.

"How do you figure that?" He questioned.  
He'd seen the both of them drop countless bodies without a second thought.  
They'd worked under Fish for years while conspiring against her the entire time.

He was programmed to follow Oswald and had always been fond of Bird, but either of them were capable of nearly anything and even knowing how close they were –he still wouldn't put it past of them to snap and react violently to the other.

"He had that knife when I left the room-"

"He can't kill me." Bird argued with her nose still buried in the tablet, "And I can't kill him. That's just how it is."

Looking up just long enough to see the growing look of confusion and doubt on his face, she stated, "Codependency."  
With that she looked back down to the tablet and shrugged, "Or at least that's what a therapist once told me."

Shaking his head, Butch started to admit that he didn't understand it, that he couldn't come close to understanding either one of them.  
But instead his attention was drawn to the screen she was holding.

His eyebrows furrowed as could easily tell she was watching a feed from some security camera of a man setting a pizza box down on the kitchen island and then going to the cabinet for a plate.

"Wait a minute…" He realized out loud at the same time he spoke, "That's that DA of yours, isn't it?"

Quickly Bird darkened the tablet and tried to hide it, but he'd already seen what she'd been up to.

"What the hell are you doing?" Butch loudly questioned.

"Keeping him safe." She quickly defended.

"Uh huh…" Butch replied in disbelief, "And does he know you're spying on him?"

"I'm not spying." Bird lied with stubbornness in her tone.

"We could also go with obsessing, stalking-" He started to poke fun at her.

"He could be a target." Bird angrily pushed the words out from between her gritted teeth.

Not willing to give him more time to mock her, Bird quickly added, "Galavan wants something from my brother, something he needs him alive for. So for the moment he's about as safe as he can be. But then there are people like Harvey Dent who don't serve Galavan any purpose other than to be used against me."

"Like Penguin's mom." Butch quietly agreed.

"Exactly like that." She nodded, "I don't want him getting dragged into this."

"And if you have to cross over into crazy ex-girlfriend territory along the way, then so be it?" He said, trying to get her to see that this behavior wasn't exactly normal.  
He had a feeling her having the house bugged and spying on him had a lot more to do with their past relationship than it did with their current Galavan situation.

"That's not what happening!" Bird snapped at him.

"What isn't?" Oswald asked as he walked into the room with a wine glass in his hand containing water and a fizzing seltzer tablet.

"Nothing." Bird side-eyed Butch and then looked back to Oswald and questioned, "Any word from Victor?"

" _Wow."_

The trio's attention was pulled to the doorway of the large dining room where Lily emerged from the shadows with Victor Zsasz right behind her.

"Wow." Lily repeated now that all eyes were on her, "He really does look like a penguin." She observed with a smirk pulled at her dark cherry painted lips.

Forcing a smile, Oswald stood from where he'd just taken his seat and hummed, "Hm. Lilith, I presume?"

"Lily." She corrected before concentrating her gaze in the direction of her daughter, "And the next time you want to speak to me, you could pick up a phone."  
Nodding to where Victor was she complained, "You didn't have to send the dogs after me."

"I'll be damned…" Butch breathed under his breath as just how much Bird and her birther mother resembled each other and not just in the physical sense.

"Victor is a friend." Bird retorted, "And you shouldn't be so quick to make enemies. We don't even know if you're worth keeping alive yet."

The corner of Oswald's mouth twitched in a hint of a smile at Bird's attitude, before he offered a nod to Victor in signal to leave them alone. That for the time being his services weren't needed.

"Sorry." Lily replied, glancing over to make sure Victor was gone before she stepped closer to the table and pointed out, "I'm just a little confused. Last we spoke I thought we were making progress and now you're sending hired guns after me?"

"Please." Oswald motioned to the table, "Have a seat."

"What is this about?" Lily wasted no time in trying to get to the bottom of why she'd been brought there, but before anyone could answer her she spotted the antique knife on the table.

It was easy enough to see that she knew what she was looking at.

"You can pick it up if you like." Oswald graciously said while trying to get a further read on her reaction.

"No." Lily declined, "I'd rather not."

"We need to know about that knife." Bird explained, "Everything you know about it and why the hell Theo Galavan has us torching buildings to retrieve it."

"You really think you can beat him, don't you?" She asked with an amused expression looking between her daughter and then over to the small statured man who was ruling the criminal underworld of Gotham.

"Yes." Oswald's jaw tightened and his body tensed up with his answer.

"Okay…" Lily sighed, raising her hands up in surrender when she observed that he looked to be on the verge of picking the knife up and using it on her, "I just don't see how the story of some old cursed knife is going to aid you in that."

"Cursed?" Butch picked up on her choice of words.

"Yes, cursed." Lily sharply responded, "Did I stutter?"

"Look lady…" Butch left an opened ended threat in the air as he adjusted his tie and looked down to where Oswald was sitting for a clue on their next move.

"Now, tell us about this knife, or I will use it." Oswald threatened.

Bird nodded along, showing that she had no intention of stopping him if it came down to that.

"Like I said…" She sighed, drumming her manicured nails against the polished tabletop, "The knife has a cursed history –dating back probably around two-hundred years."

Lily continued to explain how hundreds of years ago, Gotham high society was ruled by five familes; the Elliots, the Kanes, the Crownes, the Dumas and the most powerful of them all –the Waynes.

"The Wayne's had a daughter; Celestine. By all accounts she was absolutely stunning –flawless porcelain skin, thick dark curls with deep brown eyes." Lily told the story of her ancestors, and Oswald found his gaze pulled over to Bird as he listened to Lily speak.  
"She was a true daughter of Gotham –the crown jewel of the entire city and was also promised to the eldest son of the Elliot family."

"But?" Bird spoke up when the story slowed to a halt.

"But." Lily nodded, "One of the Dumas sons, Caleb also sought-after her. The story goes that during an Easter party held at Wayne Manor both Celestine and Caleb disappeared and were later discovered together by the Wayne men."

"Caleb insisted they were in love." She continued, "Celestine, on the other hand, swore on her mother's grave that Caleb had forced himself on her."

Lily looked around the room and continued to tell the history of the knife.

Tell them of how the Waynes were not only enraged by what had happened, but it also shamed the entire family. After that, no one from the other prominent families would want Celestine's hand in marriage, not even the Elliot boy she'd been promised to.

The family wanted justice for the supposed crime committed against Celestine and the dark mark of shame the family had been struck with.

That very night, Celestine's brother, Jonathan Wayne delivered the punishment and cut off one of Caleb's hands –justice for taking something that had been promised to someone else.  
She told them of how after that the Wayne's all but ran every last Dumas out of Gotham.

"Caleb was sent into exile overseas, to a religious sect founded by his family's patron saint and Celestine died an old maid." Lily finished, "Any remnants of the Dumas family was forced to change their names."

"Those remnants of the Dumas family… to what did they change their name?" Oswald caught on.

"Aren't you quick?" Lily commented, "But from the look on your face I can tell you've already guessed the answer."

"Galavan." Bird answered out loud, but couldn't help but add, "I can hold a grudge as well as anyone –but we're talking about something that went down centuries ago…"

"You don't understand." Lily argued, "Our family, The Waynes, wouldn't even let the Dumas name be mentioned by the press. They seized the Dumas' holdings and properties and banished them socially. Streets and buildings were renamed. They destroyed everything the family had –up to and including their very name. They were completely wiped from Gotham's history."

"And this is the very knife that maimed his ancestor." Oswald realized picked the large antique up and trailing his thumbs over the Wayne family crest again. "This is a blood feud for Galavan. He wants revenge against the Waynes."

 **•••**

* * *

 **A/N- So this chapter had a little bit of everything. Lol. We got to see Bruce, and Jim and Oswald.  
I hope you all enjoyed the update!  
**

 **Thanks to Land of a billion lights, Shadow knight1121, MzzLightwood, xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, Love. Fiction. 2017, Amelia, Guest, Katniss789, SmellYourScentForMiles, DancingDorisDay, Guest, Safirefly, Guest and inyourpocket for reviewing the last posted chapter!  
I'm not sure where I'd be without everyone's support for this series. :)**


	12. Young Volcanoes

**XII**

" _In a mad world, only the mad are sane."_ _― Akira Kurosawa_

* * *

•••

"What is it?" Lily questioned as she looked over to the driver's seat where Bird was sitting; she'd just let out another heavy sigh.

As she slowed to a stop and turned into the parking lot of a large, upscale apartment building –Bird glanced over at her and repeated back, "What?"

"I've not missed a single sideways glance you've given me since we left Penguin's." Lily pointed out. Tucking her long raven hair behind her ears, she added, "Not to mention the dramatic sighs…"

"I don't get it." Bird finally admitted once she'd pulled into a parking spot and shut her car off. Leaning her head back against the headrest she shook her head, "Galvan's reasoning for coming after my family is ridiculous enough as it is –but then I don't get why you would have ever agreed to help him in the first place."

"No, you wouldn't –would you?" She questioned as she looked out of the car window across the dark parking lot.

Bird ran her tongue over her teeth and waited to see if Lily was going to explain or if she was going to have to start up with invasive questions.

"Theo Galavan is probably the only person on earth who hates the Wayne name and everything it stands for more than me."

Bird's face twisted up with confusion once the words had left Lily's mouth.

"There probably isn't a soul in Gotham who hasn't wondered what it's like to be Wayne at some point or another. Just the name alone is some beacon of light –a sign of hope for the city, but none of them know what it's really like to grow up a prisoner inside the walls of the manor." Lily said.

Bird watched as emotion pulled at Lily's face in a way that seemed more genuine than anything she'd seen from the woman before.

"It was a long time ago…" She breathed, "Things were different back then. My very existence brought shame to the family because of my father's indiscretion and I was never allowed to forget that. I wasn't a person –no, I was just some dark stain on the name and reputation of the family. So much so that they'd sent me off to boarding schools overseas, locked me away in asylums even. I spent every single day hating the place that I came from, hating the same people whose very blood ran through my veins."

"Then you pack your bags when you turn eighteen and you don't look back." Bird angrily yelled, immediately regretting it when her voice echoed inside the car and hurt her own ears.

Closing her eyes and pulling in a breath she lowered her tone, "You make something of your own that has nothing to do with where or who you came from. You don't just show up years later to ruin the lives of people that have nothing to do with that happened to you."

"Is that what this thing with Penguin is for you? Something of your own that has nothing do with where you came from?" Lily countered, but didn't give her time to answer when she explained, "I never even got the chance to try and make anything for myself."

Lily rolled down the window to let in some cool night air.

"They made me look crazy. Completely unstable. With enough money you can buy off just about anyone. My father was paying to keep me locked away in an asylum in another country while trying to get my rights taken away. I was the oldest after all and he wanted to make sure there was no way I could get my hands on the company or any of the Wayne fortune. I knew about crimes that Wayne Enterprises were complicit in and so he had to take away any credibility I had in case I tried to out family secrets. " Lily's voice was quiet, "So I ran the first chance I got; but I had nothing. No money. No plan-"

"Then why would you ever come back?" Bird pushed.

"My father died." Lily shrugged, "All that was left of the family was Thomas and I'm not sure exactly what I wanted to get out of it. Money, maybe? I don't know, maybe even deep down I wanted to see what kind of man the little brother I hardly knew had grown up to be. But before I ever got to reconnect with my brother –I met Carmine Falcone."

"Who had power and money and-"

"And the means to give me the life I should have had all along." Lily nodded, before letting out a drawn out sigh, "And then you came along and I ended up back on the run all over again."

"That company should have been mine." She added, "That fortune you and Bruce are sitting on should have been mine."

"But you're willing to settle for just a nice chunk of change in exchange for helping Galavan take the company?" Bird flatly stated.

"I don't expect you to understand." Lily blankly replied as she pulled the handle and pushed the passenger side door open to step out into the night.

Bird was silent as she watched her shut the door behind her and head towards the entrance of the building.

She understood –she understood more than Lily thought she did.

This wasn't going to stop. With Lily it was never going to stop.

•••

"Welcome back." Oswald greeted Bird as she stepped into the dining room.

He raised his glass of red wine to his lips and admitted, "I've had the knife delivered to Galavan."

Bird nodded and assumed since Butch wasn't there that he'd been the one who'd delivered the knife.

Slowly, she advanced towards the table and sat down where it took her tired eyes a few seconds to notice the large puddle of blood on the table and a blood soaked towel laying balled up in the middle of it.

"Who'd you kill?" Bird asked with no emotion in her tone.

"No one." He admitted with a swish wine in his glass and watched the liquid climb the sides before downing another large mouthful.

"I've done it, Bird." He smiled with a nearly unhinged look in his eyes.

"You did what exactly…" She questioned as the feeling of the room started to shift and a sickening knot of anticipation formed in her stomach.

The smile on his lips grew. After being forced to work under Galavan with the threat of his mother's fate looming over his head, he'd finally figured a way out.

"Found a way to save my mother." He drank down the last of the wine and sat the glass down so hard Bird thought for sure it was going to break on impact.

She swallowed hard as she reached out and lifted a corner of the towel on the table to reveal the gruesome sight of a severed hand.

Dropping the towel back down, she scrambled up to her feet and stammered, "Oswald?"

"I found the answer." Oswald nodded, as he slowly rose to his own feet, "The solution to all my problems was right there in front of me and thanks to Celestine and Caleb, I'm now able to see them clearly."

Bird's eyes darted over to where a bottle of whisky was sitting at the opposite end of the table and it didn't take long for her to realize why the bottle was so familiar to her.

It was Butch's favorite.

"Oh my god…" She breathed, her face twisting back up as she lifted the towel again with the new realization of who's severed hand she was looking at.

"With his conditioning still working, Butch is the only person we can truly trust." Oswald reasoned as he watched her face, "This is a blood feud for Galavan, he's acting out of emotion and that can be manipulated. Now we'll have someone on the inside and Butch will lead us to my mother."

"Oswald!" She shrieked, "This is Butch we're talking about! How could you?"

"I had to!" He yelled back at her, his voice cracking and more nasally than usual.

"No, no you didn't!" Bird matched his tone, "Galavan isn't stupid –he's going to see right through the act and then he'll kill Butch, kill your mom and finally come for us-"

"No." Oswald waved a finger in the air, "Mother's life is on the line. I've thought this through, Bird."

Her mouth hung open as she tried to think of what to say next, but the entirety of the English language was eluding her.

This was Butch.

He might have been conditioned to do so, but he'd followed Oswald with nothing but the highest degree of loyalty and had been doing everything he could to quietly locate Gertrud's location.

This was the same man who'd taught her how to properly use a gun years ago.

After being shot, she'd been terrified of guns –that was until Butch showed her she had no reason to be afraid as long as she was on the right side of one.

Butch was someone she considered a friend.

One of the few people who'd earned a degree of trust from her; and what Oswald had done to him was wrong.

"I -I, I… already started planting the seeds of my insanity with Galavan's sister. You were sitting right here; she thinks I blamed Butch for the count house raid. That I'm unhinged. That I've gone mad." He stammered, his voice cracking and tone wavering as his best friend stared back at him like they were nothing more than strangers, "After all, with them kidnapping and holding my mother hostage –how could I not be a little mad?"

"No!" Bird yelled back at him, "This is wrong on so many levels, Oswald."

"It had to happen-" He scrambled to defend his actions, but his eyes widened and his voice shook when he watched Bird wrap the towel around the severed hand and pick it up, "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to find Butch and take him and his hand to the hospital." Bird spoke in a scolding tone.

She closed her eyes trying to remember just how long it could be before doctors would be unable to reattach a lopped off body part. Bird felt like she'd read somewhere that it was in the three hour range –and all she could do was hope there'd be enough time.

"You can't!" Oswald shouted at her, his eyes moving rapidly from the bloody towel in her hands up to the disgusted look on her face, "You'll ruin everything…"

"Who are you?" She cried out, her head shaking from side to side, "I'd do anything to save your mom and you know that –but even I have lines I won't cross and this is Butch we're talking about."

"Wars have casualties." Oswald's voice lowered back to his normal rang, "Have you forgotten that's what we're fighting?"

Reaching up he adjusted his tie and gave a near trembling shrug, "I won't stop you from leaving, Bird."

He lowered his head and watched from under his brows as she turned to do just that; waiting until she'd made it only a few steps before commenting, "It's your decision, but the damage is already done and if Galavan were to find out then my mother is as good as dead-"

"Don't you even…" She hissed under her breath, before spinning around to face him, "Don't you dare make it sound like any of this is my fault."

"Your fault?" He repeated back with a quick dismissive shake of the head, "No, but you now hold the key of how tomorrow will play out in your very hands. You know if Galavan finds out I've tried to trick him –that my mother is dead and so am I."

Bird's forehead lined with emotion and her lips shook when she tried to take a deep breath.

"It isn't fault like lies with you…" Oswald softly pointed out, "It's fate. My mother's fate and my own."

"No…" She swallowed hard, "If I don't find Butch, if I don't help him than I am just as culpable in this as you are."

"It's your decision." He tried to say, but she knew better than that.

"It's not." She cleared her throat and dropped the bloody towel and hand back onto the table, "You already made that decision for me when you left his hand here for me to find."

"I didn't know when you'd be back-"

"Lies." She hushed him, "You wanted someone to be just as guilty as you and I guess that's always going to be my cross to bear, huh?"

••• **days later •••**

Bird stood leaned against the wall as she watched Bruce and Alfred face each other with their gloved hands up in defensive poses.

With a small sigh, she kicked her high heels off and let her bare feet rest against the cold floor.

On the outside she seemed calm and collected, but under the surface was nothing but a turbulent storm.

Butch had made it back to Oswald's just the prior day to tell him that he was on the inside now, only to anger Oswald when he admitted they were still no closer to locating his mother's whereabouts.

So he'd been sent back in.

Lily had been keeping up her end of the bargain as well, feeding them whatever tidbits of information she'd come across.

Like how Theo Galavan had brought in his gorgeous blonde bombshell of a niece to distract Bruce and pull him further into Galavan's clutches.

According to Lily, she wasn't sure how much, Silver St. Cloud, knew about what was going on –or if she knew anything at all, but Bird knew just how much could be hiding behind an innocent face.

Which is why she was now standing in Wayne Manor, dressed in a short black cocktail dress and deep purple suede pumps –with her hair and make-up done up for the probably the first time since the charity even for the children's hospital months ago.

That night had ended in bloodshed and all she could do was hope tonight would have a better ending.

After all, in less than an hour she and Bruce would be joining up with Lily for a dinner at Galavan's penthouse.

She'd shown up at Wayne Manor early to find her brother and Alfred boxing.

Apparently Bruce had been bragging to him, saying that he felt in the less than the handful of training days he'd had with his sister that he felt like he had greatly improved and was possibly even close to not needing any further training –in response, Alfred challenged him.

"Focus." Alfred instructed, as he was nearly effortlessly able to block every attempt the youngest Wayne threw, "Head down. Head down. Focus."

Bird watched as Alfred threw in some blows of his own and her little brother protected his face behind the padded gloves; every once in a while he'd sneak a peek over in her direction to see if she was paying attention to how much he learned from her.

Not missing the wandering eyes, Alfred sighed, "Distractions will be the death of you, Master Bruce."

What an oddly fitting sentiment, Bird thought to herself, little did they know that Silver was brought in to be just that for him.

"He's right." Bird agreed out loud, "Focus."

"I am." He grunted as he blocked another incoming hit.

"Now, get on your toes!" Alfred yelled, "Move, move!"

Bird's annoyed stare traveled up to the ceiling as her little brother started to rapidly bounce around on his feet as if he were incapable of holding still.  
This was the very thing she'd been trying to break him of.

Even Alfred paused and lowered his arms as he commented, "Well, don't... dance around like a bloody showgirl."

"And here I thought he was learning that from you?" Bird laughed.

"Hardly." Alfred replied, easily dodging an incoming blow.

With the sounds of his sister's laughing echoing in his ears and the amused expression on Alfred's face, Bruce slowed his pace some. Focusing more on staying limber and ready to duck, dodge, bob and weave at a seconds notice.

Instead of looking over to see what his sister was doing, Bruce locked in with near tunnel vision on the black boxing gloves coming at him.

Bird straightened her stance some as she saw the change in him. Going from jumping around and play boxing for fun, to something be awoken inside of him.

He didn't want to be laughed at.  
He wasn't putting in all this work to be found amusing.

"Good. Good." Alfred nodded, "That's better, isn't it?"

With a battle cry, Bruce rushed forward; prepared and focused to bring Alfred down –only the older man dodged the attempt and managed to wrap his arms around Bruce and hold him prisoner.

"Got you!" He loudly pointed out and Bird watched as even Alfred was aware enough to point out, "Now, see, your enemies are going to fight at lot dirtier than that."

When he was unable to wriggle free of the tight grip his butler had on him, Bruce chose instead to tuck his chin down and get closer to the arm that Alfred had around his shoulders and neck and without a second thought –Bruce bit down until Alfred made a pained noise.  
But when he wasn't released, he dug his teeth in even farther.

"Bloody hell!" Alfred yelled as he let go of him and looked down to the teeth marks on his skin.

Bird held back a laugh and smiled proudly at her brother for figuring a way out of the iron locked grip.

"Learned that for you, no doubt!" Alfred accused jutting a hand in her direction, but once the pain subsided enough he even cracked a smile, "Very good, Master Bruce."

"Have you spoken to Mr. Fox about the computer?" Bruce asked as they resumed their fighting stances.  
He wasn't sure how long it would take until Lucius was able to fix the badly damaged computer that had been destroyed in the room he'd uncovered behind the fireplace –but he felt like it had been long enough.

That he'd waited long enough to learn his father's secrets.

"That I have, yeah." Alfred answered.

"How much longer until it's fixed?"

"I'll tell you when it's done, won't I? Patience."

"I'm tired of patience, Alfred. I'm ready to begin." Bruce argued with him.  
In reality he knew it hadn't been all that long ago that he'd unearthed the secret room, but he felt as though he'd grown and matured a considerable amount since then and he felt ready to learn family secrets.

With a sigh, Alfred argued, "I'll tell you when you're ready, Master Bruce."

"I'm ready now. I know I am." He stubbornly argued.

Bird opened her mouth to back Alfred's stance on this, but before she could the butler had a plan of his own.

"Oh, by the way, by the way, Miss Silver called. She wanted to tell you she's looking forward to seeing you for dinner this evening."

Stopping in his tracks, as if he'd forgotten he was trying to block incoming hits and deal out some damage of his own, Bruce got a star-struck look on his face and asked, "Silver called?"

"Yeah." Alfred gave the simple one word verification, followed by a direct hit to the center of Bruce's face.  
The impact knocked him all the way down to the floor and left him with a bloody noise.  
He raised up and looked between Alfred and Bird with a stunned expression on his face.

"Told ya. Not ready." Alfred repeated, as he extended a hand to Bruce and slowly a smile fell over his face as he nodded and let Alfred pull him to his feet.

With an energetic jump and burst of renewed energy, Bruce smiled, "Let's go."

"Eh, eh, eh." Bird interrupted, "You need to go and get cleaned up for dinner. We don't have long before we'll have to leave."  
With a smile she added, "And best not to make a habit of showing up to formal dinner parties with a bloody noise and bruised face."

Pausing while in the process of removing his boxing gloves, Bruce looked to his older sister and pointed out, "You're always showing up everywhere injured."

"True." She smirked, "But I can pull it off –you just make it look like stole the wrong person's spot in line for the swings at recess."

"I do not." He argued, before flashing her a smile and throwing out an idea, "We have an extra pair of gloves…"

"Please." She nearly snorted, "You really want to show up to dinner all black and blue?"

"I'll beat you one day." Bruce beamed a smile brimming with confidence at her, "One day I'll win –you'll see."

"If I do my job right, little brother, you really will." Bird called after him as he left the room.

She didn't just want him to be knowledgeable and strong –she wanted him to be an unstoppable force.

"You alright there?" Alfred questioned as he eyed Bird before taking a drink from his water bottle and catching his breath.

"Me?" Bird smiled, "Shouldn't I be asking you that? I mean you're not exactly a spring chicken, Alfred."

"I beg your pardon?" He laughed, pretending to be deeply offended by the insinuation that he was getting up in his years.

"What's the matter?" Bird teased, "Is your hearing going too?"

"You cheeky monkey, you." Alfred laughed shaking his head at her.

And while Bird laughed along with him; the ever present feeling of running out of time started to come to the surface.

It was something that had been happening more and more lately. Sometimes she could chalk it up to paranoia –other times she felt like the sense of impending doom was very real.

It popped up even in the most casual and simple moments. Her heart would pick up speed and she'd be left feeling like it may be the last time she got to have that experience.

Even the banter between herself and Alfred –or with her brother wasn't enough to completely push the feelings of predestined trouble away for long.

"What is it?" He questioned upon seeing the smile fall far from her expression.

"Nothing." She lied as she glanced around the room hidden beneath the manner and over to the broken computer.

Not believing her in the slightest, but also knowing that she was prone to anger when pushed, Alfred nodded towards the stairs, "We'd better head on up. Master Bruce should be ready soon."

Bird followed him up into her father's office and watched as he closed the hidden entrance, before picking up on something from his expression.

"You don't care much for Theo Galavan, do you?" Her eyes squinted some, "Or is it Silver you're not fond of?"

He'd had few encounters with Miss St. Cloud, all of which had her treating him as if were just mere hired help and she existed on some other plane high above him.  
Spoiled, self-centered and irritatingly entitled –all of the things that Bruce could have easily been considering the money and excess he came from, but he was nothing like her.

"I don't know Mr. Galavan or his niece well enough to truthfully answer that." Alfred avoided.

"If something feels off about him, then you should trust that feeling." Bird quickly spoke up, but wouldn't offer up anymore reason behind it.

"Well…" Alfred cleared his throat, "He may not be my favorite pick of the lot, but he saved your brother's life, didn't he? And yours."

"Yeah… because Jerome was really such a threat." She muttered under her breath.  
If only everyone else knew the entire night had been orchestrated so that Galavan would emerge a hero in front of every Gothamite glued to their television screens.

"That Valeska character had a knife, a very sharp one, pressed to young Master Bruce's throat –the very same knife he'd plunged into you only minutes before that-"

"I haven't forgotten." Bird cut him off, her hand instinctively laying over where he'd injured her, "Got the scars to remind me."  
With a deep breath resting in her lungs, Bird added, "I don't trust Galavan and you shouldn't either. I don't like him-"

"Then why are you going?" Bruce asked, emerging from the doorway with a confused and slightly worried expression on his face.

Bird looked over at him, but didn't quite have an answer for him.

"I like him." Bruce spoke up, catching the sight of Alfred lowering his head from the corner of his eye, "Maybe you shouldn't-"

"Worried I'm going to embarrass you?" Bird realized, looking down to her shoes she muttered, "Wow…"

"It's not that, it's just…" Bruce's sentence trailed off and he helplessly looked to Alfred, but their butler didn't offer him an out.

The members he'd met of the Galavan clan so far had been nothing but polite and kind to him. They carried themselves with a certain finesse that his sister, at times, lacked.  
Not to mention her track history of being a little unpredictable in the presence of people she didn't care for; she had no real qualms about trying to hide how she felt and could even be painfully blunt and show little regard for others.

What if they were settled down to what was supposed to be a nice dinner and his sister ended up being nothing but rude to them in their own home –a home she'd be a guest in?

"Don't worry." Bird cut him his thoughts off as if she could read what he was thinking on a marquee across his forehead, "I'll be on my best behavior."

"Very well then." Alfred cleared his throat and looked between the siblings, "Shall we get going then? Lily is probably already there waiting on you lot."

•••

"Adorable, no?"

Bird's posture stiffened at the sound of Theo Galavan's voice behind her.  
She'd been watching her brother from across the room as he talked and laughed with Silver –who was every bit as stunning as Lily had told her.

Swallowing hard, she fought to hold her silence and the violent impulses beating away inside of her chest. All she wanted to do was kill him, rip him to pieces for all of the pain and grief he'd brought into her life.

"There is nothing in the world quite like young love, is there?" He continued, until she blew out a heavy sigh and finally turned to face him.

"That isn't love." She argued as she stood now face to face with him for the first time since the children's hospital benefit.

"No?" Theo questioned with his eyebrows raised.

"No." She asserted, "That's your niece manipulating my little brother."

"Ah." He replied with a short nod, "Tell me, Bird… are you always so cynical?"

She immediately countered, "Don't you ever get sick of this act? You can stock up on all the hair gel and expensive suits you can get your hands on, but at the end of the day it doesn't matter how much Armani you dress a monster in –it's still just a monster in designer clothes."

With a smile, he glanced around them before fixing his gaze back on her and commenting, "Love the passion. Really, I'm moved." He dramatically placed a hand over his heart before laughing, "You should look into acting –or even politics. It's all the same anyways."

"There you are!" Lily interrupted them as she'd spotted the unhinged look in her biological daughter's eyes from across the room. The last thing any of them needed was a scene.  
Placing a hand on her back, Lily gave a wide smile and said, "Let's have a drink, huh?"

"What are you doing?" Bird grumbled, jerking away from her touch once they'd gotten several steps away.  
"Hold it together." Lily snapped back at her, "It's not just your neck on the line here, it's mine too and while you may not be too keen to care about that… let's not forget Bruce is standing right over there." Lily pointed with one of her freshly manicured nails.

"Don't be stupid." She added, as she motioned for one of the waiters to come over and she told him to bring back two martinis.

It was only minutes later that he'd returned and presented a tray with two freshly prepared gin martinis.

Not bothering with a thank you, Lily lifted the drinks from the tray and pushed one into her daughter's hand. "Drink, mingle, smile and try to pretend that you're not waiting for the first opportunity to shed a little blood."

Bird looked down to her drink and pulled the diamond-head cocktail pick out of her drink that held two green olives and held it one hand while she raised the glass to her lips with the other and tossed it back; drinking the contents in one swallow.

Dropping the stainless steel pick back into her glass with a satisfying ping, she then pushed the empty glass back into Lily's hand and gave her a forced tight lipped smile.

"Classy." Lily complained, shaking her head and watching as Bird wandered off across the room in search of another waiter

It was a little over twenty minutes that they were all seated around a large table with an elegant dinner spread laid out in front of them all.

Bird was finishing off her third martini of the night and growing increasing angry and irritable at being in the same presence as Theo Galavan. She was sure that she'd never hate anyone more than she now hated him –along with his sister Tabitha and even Silver.  
At this point she'd had anyone just from association with him.

She'd just waved down one of the dinner staff to order another drink when Theo started to make a sentimental toast about how blessed they were for having so much, but that at the end of the day material items don't mean anything. That without family life is empty.

"To family-" He tried to finish when Tabitha entered the room.

Smiling at them all, she apologized, "I'm so sorry. Something came up last minute."  
She took her seat at the table and looked around at everyone.

Bird squinted when she spotted a dark stain on the side of her face, it was then that she caught the crimson hues in the lighting and chuckled to herself.

Starting up on her fourth drink, Bird called out, "Hey, Tabby. You've got a little something on your face."

When she looked over at her, Bird winked and took another drink from her glass.  
Perhaps her mother had been right after all about just drink and smile to get through the night.

After all, she was at a table with people who wanted to bring her entire family to shame and probably go so far as to kill off the bloodline.  
The whole evening felt a better dark comedy than she'd ever came across on screen.

Drinks and dinner with the enemy.

Raising the cloth napkin to her face, Tabitha wiped off the smear of blood and quickly folded the cloth out of sight from anyone else.

She'd spent the last hour trying to undo Butch's brainwashing.  
It had been a good story and a near valiant attempt for Oswald to put one of him men behind enemy lines, but it really hadn't taken them long to learn his true motives.

Tabitha knew that with if you put the body and mind of someone who'd been brainwashed through enough turmoil, that you were likely to uncover the trigger word that had been implanted during the conditioning process that could reverse it all.

Smiling back at Bird, Tabitha knew that Penguin's days were numbered and in turn –so were hers.

Bruce looked over at his sister with a frown at seeing she'd started to drink heavily already and they hadn't even made it to the first course of dinner.

"Starling?" He softly said as Tabitha and Theo were talking among themselves, "Maybe you should have some water instead of-"

Seeing he was reaching for the stem of her glass to surely take it away from her, she slapped his hand out of the way and said, "I don't want water."

"I think maybe your brother is trying to tell you that you've had enough-" Lily intervened when Bruce turned his head and gave her a pleading expression.

"It's enough when I say!" Bird loudly snapped, getting the entire table's attention on her.

"Oh my…" Tabitha breathed, as she raised her water glass to her lips in an attempt to hide the smile pulling at the corners of her mouth.  
When her brother had told her she needed to be at the dinner, she'd agreed for the sake of keeping a family friendly appearance up –but this, seeing Bird getting closer to losing it and turning her own family against her, all on her own; made it worth it.

"You were saying?" Bird turned her head and looked at Theo as she held up what was left of the contents of her glass ready for a toast.

"Yes…" He breathed, looking a little shocked before finding his previous train of thought, "As I was saying: to family. In the end, it's all that matters."

Everyone raised and clinked glasses over the center of the table and Bird looked around with a wild look in her eyes as Bruce quietly nodded and did his best to smile, "Family."

"Hear, hear!" Bird chimed in looking over to where Lily was sitting and agreeing, "To family."

Trying his best to ignored Bird's alcohol fueled outbursts, Theo focused on the youngest Wayne and sounded sincere as he spoke, "I've known Lily for quite some time and it's been an honor to get to know her family… andI hope, in time, you'll come to think of us as family, Bruce."

"Thank you. It's-it's been some time since I had a... a meal like this." He admitted.  
Before his parents had been killed, they'd have a big family dinner together several times a week.  
No matter how busy either of them were, they always found the time to sit down with each other and enjoy a nice meal and each other's company.

He had dinner with Alfred nearly every night and even though Bird did her best to come by and join them, or even take him out somewhere –it just wasn't the same.

Deep down he knew nothing would ever quite feel like that again, but maybe this could feel pretty close.

"You mean with girls?" Tabitha teased him.

"You should come over more often." Silver said in an overly sweet voice, "We can, like, hang out or whatever."

"I'd like that." Bruce nodded, not able to hide the smile that she always brought out of him.

"Look how cute they are." Tabitha spoke up, taking a drink of white wine before saying, "Don't you just want to eat them?"

"I don't know…" Bird let out a low whistle, "Cannibalism seems a little barbaric to me –but I suppose some people just have no limits."

Silver's eyes widened as she looked past where Bruce was sitting to Bird and Lily nearly choked on the drink she'd been in the process of taking.

"Alright, you two." Theo said, looking between his own sister and Bird, "Leave the young people alone."

"Well, they are cute and they know it." Tabitha smiled.

"Bruce is cute; Silver seems kind of shady." Bird commented as the liquor she'd been consuming was disintegrating the filter between her brain and her mouth.

"I… I don't know what you mean." Silver's eyebrows lowered and hurt expression took the place of the happy one she'd been displaying mere seconds before.

"Stop it." Bruce protested, his expression pleaded with her to not ruin the night for all of them, "You don't even know her."

"I don't need to, little brother." Bird argued, "You're familiar with the term, beautiful but deadly, right?"  
Her eyes darted around the room for a few brief seconds before saying, "Like in the wild: the brighter and more colorful creatures are a sign to avoid them. Like snakes…"

Clearing his throat, Theo nodded towards his wait staff, "I think it's time to cut this one off for the night."

"Oh, of course!" Bird scoffed, "Because you get to call all the shots and what say to the rest of us have?"

"Stop it!" Bruce yelled at her, wishing she was able to see what a fool she was making of herself, "Please?"

Bird's eyes met his and slowly she started to settle back down from her series of outbursts.  
How she wished she could tell her brother that she wasn't the bad person in this scenario, that they were dining with the very people who'd tried to kill her months ago; but she couldn't.

Reaching out for her glass of ice water, Bird promised herself that she was going to keep herself from tearing at the seams until after dinner.

"I'm sorry." Bruce apologized to everyone else for his sister's behavior, "She's…"  
His voice trailed off, "It's been a rough couple of years-"

"No." She interrupted, the calm inside of her vanishing nearly as fast as it had arrived, "Rewind –and I'll finish that for you. She's crazy right? I mean that's what you were going to say? That I'm not in my right mind?"

"Well, you're certainly not acting like a sane person." Lily was fast to counter.

"I think we should all take a break and-" Theo tried to play referee, but Tabitha shushed him as she argued, "Are you kidding? Let them go at it –dinner and entertainment."

With a wicked smile she used her fork to drag a piece of ham off the serving platter and onto her plate as she settled into her seat to see what would happen next.

"I can't imagine why!" Bird screamed at her, "I mean being abandoned as a helpless infant and then-"

"Oh, grow up." Lily rolled her eyes, "I've apologized till I'm blue in the face and it doesn't make any difference to you. So you had a hard start to life? You're not the only one, but you're an adult now. Grow up and stop blaming me for everything that's gone wrong in your life."

"Oh my god." Bird's voice bellowed from the room as she rolled her eyes and ended up dizzy in the process, "You're one to talk-"

Theo interrupted the argument as he clanked his knife against the side of his glass until the sound was so loud and incessant that not a soul could ignore it.

"That's the thing about family get togethers, huh?" He tried to joke looking at Bruce, "You never know who's going to be the first one to throw a punch."

With a wide smile that Bird could see right through, he said, "It would be a shame to let dinner get cold and go to waste. Especially when there are so many less fortunate than us."

Bruce breathed a sigh of relief at his understanding and civility and gave him a smile across the table.

"No, what I see here is beautiful and surely delicious dinner –and equally beautiful company to enjoy it with. I can't think of a single thing in the world that could be worth arguing over when we're safe inside with a fire to keep us warm. Can't we just focus on that?"

The fire in the hearth wasn't the only thing burning in those moments, Bird's anger and rage was red-hot right behind her eyes and her head was throbbing.

Here they were in a room with someone she considered to be a living, breathing monster and her little brother was looking at him like he'd just hung the sun in the sky and still had energy to save the day afterwards.

"Thank you." Theo nodded with his hands held up like a prayer when the room stayed silent.

"A change of subject then?" He offered up, "How are things at school?"

"Good." Both Bruce and Silver replied, before smiling at each other.

Bruce had recently rejoined his school and when Silver moved in with her uncle she'd transferred there.

Plucking a roll up from the basket, Bird watched everyone as she slowly picked the bread apart and ate it piece by piece. Trying to focus on chewing and swallowing the food instead of the blackened hate searing away at her insides.

"How about your campaign for mayor?" Bruce questioned, "I saw on the news that your ratings are on the rise."

"Yes." Lily nodded, "You're really starting to get the entire city to rally behind you."

"It's a great feeling." He beamed, "The people of Gotham want a change –they are sick of seeing criminals thrive while the good people of this city suffer. I just feel blessed to hopefully be the person voted in to make such changes."

Bird rolled her eyes but managed to keep her snide comments at bay. In fact, she felt like in spite of her earlier outbursts that she was now holding it together nicely.

When Theo continued to gush about how much the city had taken to him and how he even had people calling him a hero, Bird excused herself to the restroom to give herself a break from having to listen to him for a moment longer.

It killed her to see her little brother buying into everything that Galavan was selling so easily.  
Then again, it seemed like every other citizen of Gotham City was being caught up in him too.

Unlocking and pushing the bathroom door open, Bird glanced down the hallway towards the dining room but could still see everyone was talking and eating dinner and wasn't quite ready to have to put her game face back on and act like she held anything other than utter hatred towards the Galavans in her heart.

So instead she made her way down the other hallway, stopping when she could see shattered glass on the floor in one of the rooms where the door was open just enough to see inside.  
With a single finger, she reached out and pushed the door open wider to give her a better view of the damage.

It was clear to see that a fight had happened in the room –and judging by the still wet blood spattered on the floor, she'd guess it happened pretty recently.

Careful to avoid the blood stains, Bird walked further into the room and started for the large desk to do a bit of snooping while she was there; until a smallish silver color television set caught her eye.

Through the haziness in her mind she was able to remember Oswald telling her how he'd watched live footage of his mother being held captive.

Picking up the remote off of the top of the T.V, Bird pushed the power button and waited for the screen to blink to life.

Her face twisted as a painfully sobering image came into view; Gertrud Kapelput pacing in what looked to be small room or possibly even a type of cell.

The older woman was crying and mumbling things to herself and Bird stepped closer to try and see if she was able to figure out where her best friend's mother was being held. But aside from Gertrud, she couldn't make anything else out other than a plain wall and a twin sized metal frame bed.

Almost as if she knew she was being watched, Gertrud turned the camera with tear stained cheeks as she pleaded with her thick accent, "Please… please… I don't know anything. I don't, I don't know-"  
Her words ended with a loud sob powerful enough to bring her down to the floor.

Bird somehow managed to turn the television off and drop the remote onto the table beside it.

Hearing about Oswald's mother being held in deplorable conditions and seeing the now terrified and broken shell of a person she'd grown fond of were two entirely different things.  
It didn't matter how long Bird tried to pin her eyes shut or think of something else, she knew she'd never get that image out of her mind.

As much as she felt bad for Butch and what had been done to him, she hoped it was going to be worth it and he'd be able to unearth her location.

Once they had Mrs. Kapelput safe once again –then they rip the Theo and Tabitha limb for limb.  
For now, she'd just have to keep playing nice and make it through the evening.

Feeling so out of sorts that Bird nearly got lost in the large penthouse on her way back to the dining room, she was finally able to find it and silently took her seat.

"Everything alright?" Theo politely questioned.

"Yeah…" She hoarsely replied, clearing her throat and adding, "Nearly got lost."

"See anything interesting?" Tabitha smirked.

Bird didn't reply as she stared down to the plate of food she knew she'd not be able to stomach a single bite of.

Bruce looked over at his sister with a concerned expression at how differently she was acting now versus when she'd gotten up to leave the table.

It felt as though an entirely different person had returned.

"As I was saying…" Theo looked to Bruce as he continued on their conversation that had been paused with Bird's return, "I've recently got the support of the DA's office behind me in my run for mayor as well."

Bird had just started to bring her glass of water to her lips when he spoke and his words stopped her arm in midair.

"I just met with Harvey Dent the other day actually." He continued, "We had a meeting discussing ways to make the city safer, actions that could be put into place if I'm lucky enough to be elected…" Letting his voice trail off, he then said to Bird, "If memory serves correct –you two used to date right? I know you were at the benefit for the children's hospital together-"

"They were engaged." Tabitha corrected, feigning a look of sadness when she added, "Looks like it didn't work out. That's too bad."

"It is a shame." Theo agreed, "Any chance of reconciliation?"

Everyone gasped as the half-empty glass of water that Bird had been holding shattered in her tight clutch.

"Go to hell." She growled with a new shade of darkness in her eyes.

"Oh my god!" Lily exclaimed jumping up from her seat and picking up a clean cloth napkin as she rushed to her side and tried to blot at the blood dripping down from Bird's now wounded hand.

"Starling?" Bruce asked as he could feel the hairs one the back of his neck start to stand on end.  
The last time he'd gotten this feeling around her was right after she'd chopped her hair off in the bathroom and berated him for snitching on her to the police.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you-" Theo tried to apologize, but Bird wasn't having any part of it as she yelled back, "Screw you!"

She roughly pushed Lily back away from her and shook her bleeding hand out to the side in an attempt to get all of the glass pieces off her skin, she looked around to see everyone staring at her –everyone except for Bruce, who was looking down to his half-eaten plate of food; appearing smaller than usual as if he were trying to disappear from the room.

Her mouth hung open as she tried to take a breath, but it felt the walls of the room were closing in on her and she couldn't stand in there for another second.

"Bruce, come on. We're leaving." She shakily said.

When he didn't make any attempt to get up from his seat, Bird yelled, "Now!"

Bird picked up her own napkin from the table and closed it tightly in her injured hand to try keep pressure on the cuts.

"Bruce-"

"I'm not leaving." He finally said in a voice that sounded much stronger than his sisters, "I don't want to leave yet."

"I wasn't asking you." She dismissed, as she stepped closer and grabbed onto his arm, "I said let's go."

"No." He jerked his arm out of her grip, "I'm staying."

"No you're not." She hissed from between clenched teeth, "I said we're leaving-"

"You're not mom." He snapped back at her.  
He was often to use his sister's lack of social grace, but he couldn't remember every feeling so embarrassed by her in his entire life.

Bird's brown eyes widened and Bruce's soon were just as big as he caught the unhinged the look in his sister's stare.

She opened her mouth and he thought for sure she was going to scream at him, but instead all that came out was a laugh –irrational, loud and nearly maniacal sounding.

"Fine!" She yelled as she finally got the unstable laugh back under her control.

Still clutching onto the napkin in her hand, she stormed out of the room wishing she'd driven herself to the dinner instead of riding with her brother and Alfred.  
With those thoughts she paused long enough to grab the car keys out of Lily's bag.

•••

Bird glanced in her rearview mirror, before turning down a street in one of the worst parts of town.

After she'd left Galavan's, she'd checked her phone and seen she had several missed calls from Selina's current number.

From keeping in touch with the teenager, Bird knew that after Butch and Selina had went to track down the Pike brothers in The Narrows –that they'd forced their sister, Bridgit into burning down the buildings on the list they'd been given.

It was just the night before that GCPD had intervened and Bridgit had accidently set one of the young cops from the strike-force on fire with a flame thrower.  
Officer Garrett had succumb to his injuries and died at the hospital; so there was now a city wide search out for the culprit.

Since Selina and Bridgit went way back and had history; she was worried about her friend.  
She'd called to say that since Bird was the one who'd sent Butch to her door and got her involved in it that they needed her help to get Bridgit out of town.

The last message she'd gotten was from an angry Selina telling her to never mind the earlier messages, that they were going to handle it themselves.

When Bird called her back, Selina told her that they were going to steal enough money to get her friend far away from the city.  
Bird jokingly asked if they'd planned on robbing a bank –but Selina said she'd had a better idea, they were going to go to where there was nearly an unlimited supply of cash and where not a soul there would call the police.

After prying a little further, she'd gotten enough information to piece together that Selina and Bridgit were planning on robbing the patrons of a place where women were auctioned off to the highest bidders; which is what had led Bird down into the darkest parts of the city as she tried to locate where the new auction site was.

"Bingo." She breathed under breath as she pulled around to the back of the building and shut the car off.

As she opened her door and stepped out onto the broken pavement she could feel the bass from the rock music under her feet and nearly lost her balance as the heel of one of her shoes landed wrong on a rock.

Closing her eyes, Bird blew out a sigh and thought of how this was the last place on earth that she wanted to be –but she didn't like the idea of Selina being there either and so she'd come to make sure the teenager made it back out.

Kicking her heels off next to the side of the building, Bird grabbed onto the already lowered fire escape ladder and started her climb up to the roof.

Her choice to drink earlier that night had left her with more regrets than she could start to tally up.  
She should have stayed sober and kept a better handle on her anger, it felt like the only thing she'd succeeded in doing was turning her brother against her.

She'd slipped up in her response when Harvey Dent had been mentioned, she'd let it be clearly known how much she still cared about him which had probably painted an even bigger target on his back.

With the throbbing pain in her head comparable to someone chiseling away from behind her eyes with an ice pick, Bird was a little surprised that she'd made it all the way to the roof with no incidents.

Slightly stumbling over to where an old broken window was now just covered with some torn up plastic, Bird started to look inside until she heard movement on the roof with her and looked over to see Selina and a girl she didn't recognize come out of hiding from behind a pile of scrap metal.

"What are you doing here?" Selina questioned.

"Checking on you." Bird admitted with a clumsy shrug.

"I don't need anyone watching out for me." Selina was fast to reply and dismiss the sentiment.

"Yeah, well, I don't care." Bird replied, rubbing her forehead, "You should have just for a bank instead."

Eyeing her for a moment, Selina finally nodded and pointed out to Bridgit, "This is Bird –the one I told you about."

"Hey." Bridgit greeted, slightly fumbling over her words, "Nice to meet you."

"Likewise." Bird replied, eyeing the device she had strapped to her back she added, "Nice flame thrower."

As she looked the young woman over, Bird could easily pick up on the haunted look in her eyes of someone who'd seen too much too young.

Feeling judged and guilty enough over the pain and trouble she'd seemed to have caused everyone around her, Bridgit stated, "I never meant to hurt anyone-"

"It happens." Bird cut her off with another shrug, before adding, "For what it's worth, I'm sorry you got dragged into all of this."

"Let's just get this done." Selina interrupted them as she stepped up to Bird by the window and they both looked in.

The music playing was loud, but the speaker the microphone was connected to was much louder.

They watched as a large man unlocked and opened a tall fenced in cage like area and connected each end of a chain to metal collars around two girls necks, before roughly pulling them out onto the platform by the chain leash.

" _Ladies and gentleman… or should I say pimps, hoes and thieves! Do I have some product for you today!"_ The auctioneer called out, his voice echoed off the walls and Bird and Selina exchanged looks.

" _Do you like what you see?"_ He called out with a wide smile, as the two blondes were led down the stairs on the stage where he was standing, _"Let me hear you –do you like what you see?"_

The audience was comprised of mostly men, but there were a few women in the crowd too.  
Everyone was shouting with excitement and waving fists full of cash in the air while yeing the two terrified women like they were sizing up a prize hog about to be sent to slaughter.

Taking the leash, the announcer pulled the women behind him to the end of the stage, _"Check it out, check it out! The bidding will start at eight hundred apiece."_

"I want her!" A deep voice bellowed through the crowd's cheering and jeering.

The girl who'd been stripped down to just her bra and panties started to sob loudly and clutched onto the hand of the girl with her who was in a tight black négligée trembling in fear.

" _Eight hundred? I got eight hundred. Do I hear nine?"_

"Wait…" Bridgit breathed, pulling their attention away from the window, "Those girls are for sale?"

"To the highest bidder." Bird somberly answered.

"Told you this place was freaky." Selina shuddered.

The horrified expression on Bridgit's face intensified.  
Freaky? When Selina said they place they were going to rob was freaky, she wasn't sure what she was being led into, but she'd never in a million years thought of this.

"We need to help them." Bridgit frantically said, gripping onto the fuel tube of her flame thrower.

"We're here to help you… cause you killed a cop, remember?" Selina argued with her, "We get the money –we go."

"But-" Bridgit tried to argue, not sure how her friend would be able to just walk away and leave those other girls behind

"Listen!" Selina yelled over her, "Listen, you go down the stairs, the lock on the back door is busted. I know cause I busted it. You go in, wait for me to my move."

"Here." Selina said turning her attention to Bird as she pulled off her backpack and took two guns out, "I brought an extra."

With an arched brow Bird pointed out, "I'm not going in there."

Staring at her with a blank expression, Selina finally rolled her eyes and spoke in a voice laced with irritation, "Then what did you even come here for?"

"Hmm… let's see." Bird drummed her index finger against her chin and pretended to be deep in thought, "Oh, I know! I got it! Maybe so you don't end up stripped down to nothing on the wrong end of a metal chain."

"Not gonna happen." Selina argued with her, before dropping one of the guns back in the bag and saying, "You can be the getaway driver then."

"Wait for my signal." She repeated to Bridgit before she ran over and climb into an air vent to slide down into the building.

" _Sold for twenty-five hundred to the gentleman in the burgundy hat. Come on, ladies. Found you a nice new home! Oh, you'll be very satisfied. Very, very satisfied."_

Bridgit's mouth dropped open and Bird's face twisted up with repulsion.

"We should help those girls, right?" Bridgit spoke up.

"Look, Bridgit…" Bird sighed, "Saving people isn't going to make up for the one you killed. Life just doesn't work that way. Your conscience isn't some system of checks and balances where the good and bad will cancel each other out. The sooner you make peace with that –the better off you'll be."

Bridgit slowly nodded her head.  
All her life she'd had her brothers looking out for her –or at least that's what they called it.

They treated her as their slave and when she'd mess up, they'd go so far as to literally chain her to the wall and toss lit firecrackers at her.

She'd lived in fear so long – fear of them and even more fear of life without them.  
They constantly reminded her of how they protected her and kept a roof over her head.

Living in that tiny apartment in The Narrows with them was horrible, but maybe life outside of that place, life on her own would be worse.  
But that didn't matter anymore. Her brothers had fled and left her to deal with the police and she'd accidently killed someone –now she was on her own.

Looking in the window, Bird saw Selina stealthily drop from the ceiling onto the top of the large fence caging the women were being held in.

"I think that's your signal." Bird nodded, before offering, "Good luck."

" _Next up; check her out as she walks down the stage; see how graceful she is. Look at this one! Whoo! I'm going to start the bidding here at nine hundred! Can I get nine hundred?"_

Bird directed her attention back inside and waited until Selina and Bridgit had the room under their control before she went back down the fire escape and ended up sitting down on the pavement next to where she'd left her shoes.

Pulling in a deep breath, she rested her head back against the dirty brick building and waited for them to come back out, but the time alone didn't do much to ease her heavy mind.

Now that more of the alcohol was gone from her system and she was able to think more clearly, it had fully started to dawn on her that they wanted her to find that video of Oswald's mom.

Why else would they have left the door open to that room? Because they knew Bruce wasn't the type to be sneaking about their house, but Bird on the other hand would utilize her time there.

She might as well have been putty in their hands with as easily as she'd played right into their plans.  
They wanted her to have a meltdown, to drive her to the brink of snapping so that her brother would see her like that.

Here she'd spent the evening not understanding how on earth her brother couldn't see through them –all the while she remained several steps behind them and their plans.

Stupid, she thought, she'd acted so foolishly that night.

"Let's go!" Selina's voice echoed out as she and Bridgit threw the side doors open with a bang and found Bird.

"Get up." Selina ordered when Bird didn't budge.

"I can't." Bird finally spoke as she let her arms hang limply at her sides and rest on the pavement.

"What do you mean?" Selina asked at the same time Bridgit questioned, "What happened?"

"Someone is out to get me and I'm making it easy on them." Bird admitted, leaving both girls utterly confused, "And now Bruce thinks I'm crazy."

"You don't want people to think your crazy?" Selina asked still trying to catch her breath, "Then just don't act crazy. For example: get up… we gotta go."

"Catch." Bird said as she tossed the keys to Lily's car up in the air and like she was instructed, Selina effortlessly snatched them from the air.

"Fine. I'll drive." She said, looking over her shoulder to the car, "Come on."

"Take it and go –both of you. Get out of here." Bird spoke in an empty tone, causing Selina and Bridgit to exchange looks.

"I don't think leaving you here alone is a good idea-" Bridgit began to say, and Selina rapidly nodded and cut in, "Yeah, cause it ain't."

"Go." Bird loudly said, as she threw her arms up in the air and let them drop back down.

Leaning her head back against the bricks, she let out a long sigh until all the air had been forcibly expelled from her lungs and her chest started to ache.

"Selina?" Bridgit whispered while she nervously bounced on her feet.

Her friend gave her a shrug in response, and the tried a different approach, "Look, we're leaving so either you get up and come with us –or we're leaving you here."

"That is what I've been telling you to do all along." She complained, not opening her eyes back up to look at them.

The night fell back into silence, until Selina gave a despondent shrug of her own and mumbled, "Whatever. Bridgit, let's go."

•••

* * *

 **A/N-Thank you all for reading. I really hope you've liked the chapter.  
**

 **I also want to take a moment to give an extra special thank you to: Kakkorat is Cake, Shadow knight1121, MzzLightwood, desi, Love. Fanfiction. 2017, Katniss789, xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, Land of a billion lights, DancingDorisDay, Guest, Miss E Charlotte, and Guest for reviewing chapter 11.**

 **It can be really hard to keep inspired and motivated when it comes to writing sometimes -and reading your reviews help turns things around when I'm feeling down.**


	13. Haunting

**XIII**

" _You wanted to drown in a woman. Here's your chance. Drown in her blood." - Gena Showalter, The Darkest Night_

* * *

•••

"She's a little on the skinny side. Don't look like she eats much."

"Yeah, but her face is pretty enough."

Bird stared up to the ceiling and tried her best to block out their comments while she was in the center of a room with her wrists bound above her head and the ropes looped over a hook hanging from the ceiling, with the men who owned the human auction sight trying to determine how much they could get for her.

Her night had steadily went from bad to worse after Selina and Bridgit had done as she'd instructed and left in Lily's car.

Bird wasn't even entirely sure what had happened. One minute she'd been sitting there thinking about how she needed to get up and get back to Oswald's and she must have fell asleep because the next thing she knew was a rude awakening of more than one set of strong arms grabbing at her.

On a better day she would have been able to fight them off. Even being out numbered, she'd have at least been able to hold her own until she was able to use her speed to her advantage and run away –but not today.

No, today she felt like she'd already been running for miles and she wasn't able to tell whether her mind or body was more exhausted.  
Maybe somewhere inside she'd just give up and couldn't find it in her to fight any longer.

"Let's see…" One of the guys said as he walked up to her and started to rub his hands over the black dress she had on.  
Her nose curled at the smell of his breath when he hummed in her face and she turned her head to the side to get away from him.

Her eyes pinned shut as he started to rip open the front of her dress, but could only manage to get the expensive fabric to tear to just below her bra.  
Huffing out in frustration, he gave up and grabbed onto the bottom hem and lifted it up above her head; putting her body on full display with only her bra and underwear for cover.

"What the hell happened to you?"  
One of the men called out upon seeing the numerous scars across her clothes had been hiding.

"Good thing we're keeping the dress on."  
Another commented.

"Tits are kind of small… but she makes up for it here." The one bellowed who was keeping her dress raised as he reached around and smacked butt with his free hand.

A round of laughter went around the room and finally he let her dress fall back over her body, but she still felt just as naked as she had seconds before.

Nothing in those moments could have helped her feel any less exposed standing in the center of that room defenseless.

"How old are you, darlin'?"

Bird didn't speak a word; she hadn't said a single thing to any of them since they'd dragged her in out of the alley.  
Sometimes it was only her skin that was present in the room and her mind was far away, reliving happier times in far better places.

"I'll be damned!" A deep voice thundered from one of them, "She's the one who was on T.V months back –killed some people."

"Is that so?" The one who'd raised her dress cooed as he put his face back in hers and hungrily eyed her, "You got some danger in you, sweetheart?"

Laughter echoed off the walls and Bird slowly turned her head from where she'd been straining to get away from him, her neck almost seemed to be moving unnaturally when she took her time to turn back and face him.

Her eyes locked with his and slowly his laughter came to a stop as the cold stare she was giving him made the hair on his arms stand on end and a menacing feeling crawled down his spine.

Taking a step back away from her, he cleared his throat and hollered out, "We oughta get at least nine-hundred out of this one –shame she's not a blonde, they always go for more."

"Oh, no, no, no… no." A woman she hadn't spotted before and who'd been lingering towards the back said as she walked closer, "Boys, don't you know who this is?"

The one who'd identified her from the news coverage of the crimes she'd been framed for piped up with bright eyes, "She's a Wayne, isn't she?"

"This…" The nameless woman said, while she walked up and took Bird's chin tightly in her hand to get a better look at her, "This is Falcone's kid."  
Looking over her shoulder back to the rest of the room, she smiled widely, "This one's gonna make us very, very rich."

With any luck, they'd bank enough profit that night to make up for the theft that had occurred from the night before.  
In fact, spreading word that there was something extra special on the menu for that night might just be enough to bring the customers back who'd been scared off by the flamethrower and gun toting robbers.

The mood of the room completely changed to one of excitement; hooting and hollering rang out as the handful of men started calling out guesses as to how much of a profit they could make off of her that night.

•••

"You should drink something." A soft voice said and Bird looked up from the corner she'd tucked herself in, inside of the large cage all the girls were being held in for that night's auction to see a girl around her age offering up one of the water bottles that had been dropped in with that days food rations.

Bird shook her head back and forth.

"I know you're scared." The girl sympathized as she sat down next to her and with heavy eyelids confessed, "We are all are –but we only get food once a day… so you've gotta be quick to get something."

"I'm Eliza." The girl introduced herself before holding the bottle back out to Bird.

Upon hearing her name, Bird whipped her head and around and looked at the girl. Immediately thinking of Liza, whom she'd only known for a short period of time –but had still considered a friend.  
Another name on an endless list of people she'd let down in one way or another.

"What…" Eliza questioned, startled from Bird's reaction.

"I had a friend named Liza once." Bird explained.

With a sigh she reached out and took the water bottle from Eliza, making sure the girl was still watching her, Bird turned it upside down and squeezed tightly until drops of water started to fall from cap of the unopened bottle.

"They use a syringe to drug the water." Bird answered the confused look on her face, "At first glance the bottle doesn't look tampered with –but you're better off to dehydrate than this drink this."

"What…what's in it?" Eliza stammered out, her green eyes growing wider by the second.

"Not sure." Bird answered as she tossed the water bottle off to the side and shrugged, "Something to keep you drowsy and compliant."

Eliza scooted back against the chain link fencing and looked around at all the other women in there. The newer ones were mostly huddled up sobbing, while the ones who'd been there for a while were scattered along the sides sleeping or staring off into the distance with dazed expressions.

Looking down to her dirty legs, Eliza tried to steady her breathing. She'd been there for going on four days now and had been chalking her chronic drowsiness up to being in a heightened level of fear and lack of sleep.

"Do you think there's stuff in the food too-" She started to question, but Bird didn't let her finish as she stated, "I wouldn't chance it."

They sat in silence for quite some time before Eliza couldn't hold her tongue any longer.  
In the time she'd been there, she'd seen a rotating door of girls and women of all different ages come through there and everyone's reactions were all nearly the same.

The ones who'd been brought in from other cities and been kept in similar or worse conditions seemed to be calmer than the ones freshly plucked up off the streets.  
The ones who'd been in captivity for longer, they were more empty shells than people. Hope of being rescued had already passed; but Bird seemed much calmer than anyone else she'd witnessed there.

"I, uh, you just…" Eliza blew out a breath, "Did they bring you in from somewhere else?"

"No…" Bird start to say, but Eliza kept talking, "Cause I've noticed they seemed calmer and you don't really seem all that scared."

Bird eyed her for a moment before giving another shrug and closing her eyes to rest her head for a moment, but the lack of response couldn't be ignored by the terrified young women who'd tried to be nice to her.

"How are you so calm?" Eliza's voice cracked, "I'm so terrified that my hands haven't stopped shaking since they grabbed me…"

Her voice trailed off and everything she'd been holding in for days came pouring out.  
Loud sobs echoed through the cage and out into the empty auction room as Eliza clutched onto her sides and gasped out for air in between her cries.

Bird silently watched her and then looked back out to the other girls, a few more of them had also started to cry and a few others were trying to console them –even though they were as equally terrified.

Swallowing hard she tried to block the distressing sounds out, but she couldn't and it was opening up a deep pit of sorrow inside of her.

If she made it out onto the auction floor, then whoever bought her was going to be in for a rude awakening when they got her alone –she wasn't going to let anyone touch her.  
She'd either kill them or she'd fight to the death, but either way –she'd sworn to herself so many years ago that she wasn't going to let anything like what she went through as a teenager happen to her again.

The soul crushing feeling inside grew with her thoughts and inability to block out everyone else's voices and sobs.

She had a chance at defending herself –she knew just where to hit someone to bring them down. She knew the amount of force to use in order to break someone's neck and that a hard enough strike to the front of the throat would incapacitate even the strongest opponent.

She'd killed before and could easily do it again; but not everyone was like her.

And chances were that most of the women in there with her right now didn't know a quarter of what she did about self-defense or fighting.

So while she sat there knowing that she at least had a fighting chance in walking away from this, she was most likely the only one in there that -that could ring true for.

"They're not taking me alive." Bird finally said when Eliza's cries had lowered in volume.  
Nodding her head, Bird continued, "I'll die before someone uses my body to play out their sick fantasies."

"What…" Liza chocked out, rubbing her cheeks with her tear dampened hands.

"You think being in locked in here is bad?" Bird responded, "You have no idea what could happen to you once someone dishes out enough money… I can promise you that the horror stories playing in your head probably don't even come close to touching the truth."

"So… the way I look at it is like this; either I'm going to get free and kill them all, or they're going to put me down, but either way –they'll pay for this." Bird said, as she stared blankly ahead and of her and left Eliza with even more questions.

"If you get killed how do you know they'll pay?" She sniffled, wiping her nose.

"People talk." She answered, "Someone, somewhere will open their mouths about what happened to me and my friend won't stop until every single person involved has died a slow and painful death."

"That's some friend." Eliza commented, no longer sure if Bird was making things up to make herself feel better, or she really meant what she said.

"He is." Bird agreed, the corner of her mouth angling up into a small smile as she thought of Oswald.

"I just hope he notices something is wrong sooner rather than later." Her voice cracked when she thought of how she hadn't done the best job staying in touch with him lately, it would probably take him a while to start to suspect something had happened, but she had no doubt that he'd eventually find out and then make them all pay, "He's probably the only one who would come looking for me though."

"That's more than some people have." Eliza quietly commented, doing her best to smile through the tears, "I don't have anyone to miss me. No one who's going to care enough to seek out any revenge…"

A few more moments of silence passed, until Eliza reached over and gave Bird's arm a small squeeze before she got up and walked over to talk to some of the other girls.

It was a while later that Bird had just started to drift off to sleep when she heard someone clear their throat.

Cracking an eye open she looked up to see everyone was now standing in front of her: women of varying ages in varying stages of undress.

Bird's eyes widened and she looked around at all of them, but before she ask what was happening, Eliza stepped forward and dropped the grocery bag of still full bottles of water on the floor and said, "We don't want to just sit here and wait to be auctioned off."

"Yeah, we want to fight back."  
Another voice called out.

Stepping forward Eliza extended her hand to Bird and repeated back what Bird had told her earlier, "They're not taking me alive either."

Letting Eliza pull her to her feet, Bird surveyed the group all looking to her guidance and in an apologetic tone she said, "Even if we all band together… not everyone is going to make it out alive."

She fully expected group momentum to fall after she'd laid the hard truth on them, but no one backed down.

"You really want to do this?" Bird asked them, not able to hide the shock on her face.

Some nodded while others answered her verbally. Even the ones who'd spent the entire morning crying out every last drop of water in their bodies agreed.

"Okay." Bird pulled in a deep breath and said, "We need to pour out these water bottles and when anyone comes around –we can't be all huddled together like this. They can't know that something is up because our time to strike is going to be when they open the gate."

Everyone nodded, listening intently to what she had to say.

She told them that once someone opened the gate is when they needed to strike. To rush the person who'd unlocked it and try to get out of the opening and make a run for it.

Bird gave them a quick run through of some basic moves they could use against someone who would try to get in their way to stop them; to go for the eyes, use the heel of their palms to break an opponent's nose. Stomp on their feet, elbow them –even knees to the groin were all moves that would debilitate someone long enough to make a run for it.

While some of the girls got to work on emptying out the water bottles to make it look like they'd add been drank, Bird started to go back to her corner to sit and wait for their chance to strike when someone asked, "Who are you?"

"Bird." She simply stared before turning back around and repeating with the tiniest glimmer of life back in her eyes, "I'm Bird."

•••

"This isn't good, isn't it?" Eliza questioned as she stood next to Bird who was watching the audience start to fill up for the night.

"I heard someone talking about getting here early because there's supposed to a special girl to headline off tonight's auction." Another girl whispered from a little father back.

Bird looked down to the ground, knowing they must have been talking about her.

Eliza was right –the crowd filling up so quickly already wasn't a good sign. It was going to end up in more chaos, more weapons to be used against them –along with more people trying to grab them while they made a run for it.

"What do we do now?" Eliza asked when Bird had fell back into her state of silence.

"Same plan." Was the only response she received.

"But things have changed. We were planning on trying to fight and outrun five, ten people at the most… but now the crowd is already here and we're outnumbered and-" Eliza started to list off the reasons she was doubting they stood a chance.

"The plan is still the same." Bird argued with her, "It's just going to be more difficult now, but still the same. We fight and we run –don't look back."

Nodding, Eliza looked over and saw one of the guys who ran the place watching them and she lowered her head as she walked away, trying to act normal and not alert anyone that an uprising was in the works.

"You." One of the guys said as he pointed to Bird and motioned for her to come to the gate, "Come here."

Her eyes traveled down to the metal collar in his hands and she hesitated.

Quickly growing impatient, the man took out a gun and motioned with it as he ordered, "Now!"

With her eyes locked on the weapon, Bird walked closer, standing just to the side so when he unlocked the gate she could make her move.

Muttering something under his breath, he tucked the gun back into the waistband of his pants and got to work unlocking the padlocks keeping the cage gate secure.

As soon as he started to open it, Bird threw herself against the gate with all her might and used it to knock him down to the ground.

Gasps ran through the crowd and the other men who were standing guard started to run for the cage.

Bird wasted no time in slamming the man's head off the cement floor with enough force that he immediately stopped moving and within mere seconds she retrieved the gun and stood back up.

"You crazy bitch-" One of the guards started to say, but he didn't get to finish his words as Bird fired a shot into his chest.

The auction crowd screamed when his body fell from the walkway and into where everyone had started to gather for the night.

Another of the guards raised his own gun, but before he got the chance to fire off a shot –his body was completely engulfed in flames.

Screams erupted from nearly everyone under the roof –from the girls in the now open cage to the audience with their fists full of cash.

Bird watched as Bridgit stepped up onto the stage and lit her flamethrower back up, waving the wand from side-to-side the audience continued to scream out in fear.

"Go!" Bird yelled over her shoulder to the girls who were now stunned and scared from the change in their plans and the sudden appearance of someone covered from head-to-toe and wielding a flamethrower.

"Stay down!" Bridgit screamed at everyone in audience.

"Go, go, go!" Bird yelled at the women again, "Run as fast as you can –and remember, don't look back."

"Go on!" Bridgit also yelled at them as the women came down the ramp but seemed scared to try and get past her; they didn't know she'd come back to save them.

Bird stayed in place, alert and ready to unload the rest of the clip if she needed to as she made sure every single girl who'd been held prisoner had cleared the doors and made it outside.

"Come on." Bridgit said as she nodded with her head for Bird to follow her outside.

"Thank you." Bird managed a smile at her, before she crossed by her and went down the walkway, stepping over the burnt remains of a body as if she was missing a crack in pavement.

"Where are you going?" Bridgit called after her.

"Get yourself out of here." Bird instructed, "There's something I need to take care of first."

With that she jogged up the far set of stairs and right into the room where she'd been held the night before –where the people who ran the auction site were now cowering and trying to take cover behind the sparse furnishings.

One by one, Bird picked them all off –saving the last bullet for the man who'd held her dress up above her head and touched all over her body.  
She took a moment to savor the look of terror in his eyes before she shot him in the front of his throat and left him to bleed out and choke on his own blood.

Then she ran from the room, wiping her fingerprints off the gun on the torn remains of her dress and dropped it on the floor while pushing her way through the crowd.  
Once she had a clear view of the door, she set tunnel vision on it and raced out of the building as fast as she possibly could.

The cold night air hit her in the face and stole her breath once she made it outside.

The soles of her bare feet felt frozen against the sidewalk, so much so, that she could barely feel the tiny jagged pebbles and broken cement cut into her skin as she slid to a stop at the sight of the GCPD strike-force.

"Bridgit Pike!" Jim yelled out as he and his task force stared the young woman brandishing a flamethrower down in the middle of the street.  
He'd made a promise to Selina that he'd try to bring her friend in alive; do everything in his power to keep her safe despite the fact she'd killed an officer.

Bird watched with wide eyes as Jim holstered his gun and slowly stepped in front of everyone else.

"Stay away!" Bridgit warned, but in response Jim held his arms up to show he didn't mean her any harm.

"My name is Jim Gordon." He yelled over the sounds of sirens growing closer in the distance from back up and ambulances, "I know what your brothers did to you. I know you didn't mean for any of this to happen."

"You don't know anything." She countered in a voice wavering with fear.

"Put your weapon down and come with me. I can help you… there are places you can go." He continued to try and talk her down.

"I'm not goin' to jail." She yelled back.  
She'd spent far too long being held prisoner by her brothers; she wasn't about to sign up for life in a five-by-nine cell.

"You're a juvenile. We can work something out." Jim pleaded.

But fear had gotten the best of Bridgit and instead of heading his pleas, she aimed the flame thrower at him and ignited it.

"Bridgit, stop!" Bird shrieked as she ran from the sidewalk onto the pavement, but came to an abrupt stop when one of the new officers who'd arrived on the scene fired a shot in their direction.

"Wait, wait!" Barnes ordered, at the same time Jim yelled, "I said hold your fire!"

Bridgit let the flames die down again as she frantically looked around and wondered if the shot had hit her.

Jim looked across the haze from the dense smoke and blue flashing lights to where Bird was standing just off the sidewalk –her torn dress and tangled hair blowing in the cold night air, while she looked frantically back and forth from the where the task force was stationed, to the opposite end of the street that was steadily filling with more police cars.

Bridgit was young and scared; caught up in something that she never wanted to be a part of and now she was trapped with nowhere to go; Bird knew there was no way this could end well.

Bridgit's fuel canister had been punctured by the shot fired and it was leaking out all over her clothes.  
Even though she'd made herself some flame retardant gear –it wouldn't hold up if she were to catch on fire with all that fuel and nitrogen still on her back.

Breathing heavily and frantically trying to get her flame thrower started back up, Bridgit couldn't even hear Bird over the pounding in her own head.

"Bridgit, no!" Bird yelled, glancing again at the where the police were stationed before she started to walk closer to her and ignored Jim as he yelled out for her to stay back, "It's gone too far… you have to stop."

Finally she got her flamethrower ignited again and in her panic she started spinning in circles, shooting fire out in every direction she could manage to.

"Bridgit!" Bird screamed as loud as she could; trying to get through to her over the sounds of chaos around them but it was useless.

"Bird, stay back!" Jim warned, his eyes wide with fear and shock as she moved closer to the girl with the flamethrower.

"Take cover!" Barnes screamed as Bridgit continued to spin out of control and the strike-force and other officers ran backwards to get away from the flames and hud behind their vehicles.

But Bird wasn't ready to give up on her.  
She was the one who'd brought up they hire they Pike brothers to burn down the buildings on Galavan's list –and even though she'd never intended on them forcing their little sister to do the dangerous jobs, she still felt responsible.

If she could just reach her; get through to her and stop this from going any further, then there was a chance the girl who'd risked everything to come back and save the women she'd so desperately wanted to help the night before, might be able to make it out alive.

"Bridgit-"

Bird's words were cut short as Jim darted across dangerous fiery path and tackled Bird to ground to knock her out of harm's way.  
Even though the flames weren't directly on them, they could still feel the intense heat and Jim did the best he could to protect Bird from getting hurt –using his own body as a shield.

Raising her head, Bird peered out from under Jim's arm and watched as the nearest patrol car became engulfed in flames.  
When the fire caused the gas tank to explode, it shot a wave a fire back in Bridgit's direction and her fuel saturated clothes immediately erupted in flames.

She didn't stand a chance when the fire reached the fuel tanks on her back.

The crackling sounds of fire quickly roared over Bridgit's petrified screams and agonized cries, until her voice hollowed out to nothing and her still burning body crumpled motionless onto the ground.

•••

"You, uh… you holding up alright?" Bullock questioned as he held out a cup of water to Bird, who was sitting on a bench in the police station with Jim's coat wrapped around her.

The only acknowledgment of his presence she gave was taking the cup of water from him.

"You need me to call someone for you?" He offered, as he slowly sat down beside her.

Bird shook her head back and forth.

"Okay…" He breathed, not sure what else to say to her, "Well, they're wanting all of the girls to go to the hospital…" He let his voice trail off as she again shook her head.

"Can I get you anything?" He near helplessly offered while he looked around hoping to catch sight of Jim, his partner was much better at this part of the job than he was.

"A stapler."

His forehead lined in utter confusion at the first words she's spoken.

"A stapler?" He repeated back and she nodded in response.

Standing up, he took his hat off and rubbed a hand through his hair as he looked around the desks until he spotted one with a stapler. Letting out a heavy breath, he picked it up and brought it back to her.

Wordlessly, she took it from his hands and he started to ask her what the hell she wanted it for, but stopped as he saw her shrug out of Jim's coat and then get to work on stapling up the top of her dress that had been torn way past her bra.

Once she was finished, she handed the stapler back to him and pulled the coat back on and wrapped her arms around herself again.

Bullock sat back down beside her and stared down to the stapler in his hand before he gave one last look around the station hoping to catch sight of Jim.

When his search turned up empty, he cleared his throat and tried to carefully pick what he needed to say to her.

He was aware that Bird had never been a big fan of his, but he could clearly remember back to the night he'd went undercover into The Foxglove when they were hunting The Ogre, after he'd abducted Barbara Kean.

Bird had gotten a ticket and showed up there herself because she'd been worried about her friend.

Even though she never seemed to care much for him, she'd locked onto his arm like a vice grip that night.  
He'd had visible bruises for well over a week as proof.

He knew enough about her story and what had happened to her as a teenager when Fish had found her near death in an alley close to the dive bar, to know that whatever she'd gone through now probably had her head spinning with a bunch of memories she'd rather forget.

Her name was kept out of papers before with her only being a minor, but now she was an adult and with all the recent attention she'd been getting in the papers, he had a pretty good idea that her reluctance to do anything had to do with not wanting the entire city to know what might or might not have happened to her.

"Look…" He said glancing over at her, before he faced forward to try and make the awkward conversation a little less so, "I know the last thing you want is the whole damn city in your business again. I get it. You don't want to show up at Gotham General in an ambulance –with the lights and sirens and all that."

Taking in another breath he offered, "But if something happened, something… that would give you reason to see a doctor, then I'll drive you myself. No lights, no sirens… none of that. We can drive around and go in a back door and no one has to know."

"Nothing happened." Bird said.

"Okay." He nodded, glancing back over at her and not sure whether to take her answer at face value, "But I'm just saying if it did…"

"It didn't." She cut in.

Aside from being nearly exposed to several strangers, unwanted hands on her body and then listening to those same people discuss the pros and cons of her physical appearance; nothing had happened.  
She was lucky –if you could even consider that luck at all.

"You can't just sit here." Bullock finally said.  
He'd started to tell her that she needed to do something –eat or drink, be checked out at the hospital, let him drive her somewhere, or at the very least give him the number of someone to call, but he didn't get the chance.

Bird silently stood up and started to walk away.

"Wait, wait, wait!" He called out, quickly getting up and stopping her.

"I didn't mean you can't just sit here." He tried to clarify, "I meant you can't just sit here."  
His face scrunched up at his own words and he shook his head, "On second thought, just sit back down."

Bird eyed him for a brief moment before she backed up to the bench and sat back down.

Picking up the paper cup of water he'd brought her before from the small magazine table next to the seating, he handed it back to her and said, "And drink this, will you? You need fluids."

He lingered next to the bench until she brought the cup to her lips and took a drink of the cold water.

Bullock went over to his desk and looked around the station. It was much busier than usual for a Tuesday night.

The holding cells were filled up with people that had been arrested from the auction site. Some detectives were busy booking more, while others were taking statements from the victims and trying to get contact information to get them some help.

"We've got ten dead." Jim spoke in a low voice as he walked up to his partner, "Bridgit Pike." He began to say, "Then inside –there were two guys dead out in the main room. One was shot, the other burned."

"And the rest?" Bullock asked him.

"Seven bodies found in an office –six male and one female." Jim answered, "All of them shot. Executed."

"You thinking…" Bullock's voice trailed off as he glanced over to where Bird was sitting.

With a small shrug, Jim answered, "If I had to take a guess, I'd bet those seven were the one running the entire operation. There was a safe in the office with more money than we'd make in a year and some notebooks in the drawer listing out what appears to be features of the girls they sold and how much they got for them."

They both watched as Bird sat by herself on the bench, still closed off from everything and everything. Every so often she'd take a sip from her cup, but other than that she was barely blinking at normal rate.

"You know." Bullock began, "If she did it, then she pretty much did the city a favor."

"Yeah." Jim agreed with a heavy breath, before a concerned look landed on his face and he asked, "Has she said anything?"

"Not much." Bullock said, "Asked for a stapler to close up her dress."

When Jim looked at him, Bullock gave him a knowing look and added, "She says nothing happened… but if it did, I don't think I'm the one she's gonna tell it to."

Jim stood in front of where Bird was sitting for a little while, but she wouldn't look at him; just continued to stare down to her now half empty cup of water.

He slowly took a seat next to her, careful to not move too suddenly or make her feel crowded since he had no idea what she'd gone through or how long she'd been locked away in that place.

When she didn't say anything or even look over at him, Jim finally cleared his throat and in a sincere voice said, "I'm sorry."

"I need to talk to Barnes." Bird stated in a low but calm tone.

"Why?" Jim questioned as he turned to get a better look at her.

Without another word to him, she stood up and moved unhurriedly towards the stairs leading up to the captain's office. In her still bare feet she trekked along with Jim now right on her tail, asking her repeatedly what was going on –but she never gave him an answer.

Captain Barnes was standing behind his desk going through some paperwork and looked up as Bird walked into his office followed just a few steps later by Jim.

"Miss Wayne?" He greeted in an unsure tone, before giving Jim a questioning look to which the detective didn't have any response other than to offer up a shrug.

Bird walked over and sat down in one of the chairs facing his desk and stared blankly ahead.

"Uh…" Captain Barnes breathed, giving Jim another look before he slowly pulled his chair back to give himself room to sit down, "We're trying to see that all of the victims go to the hospital-"

With a sigh, Bird rolled her eyes, she hated that word to her very core; especially when it was being used as her identifier.

Shaking her head and fighting against the want to completely shut down, it took her a few minutes to finally locate her words, "Paper." She said, before her eyes snapped up to the confused police captain and she added, "And a pen."

Crossing the room, Jim picked up a notepad from the desk and flipped it to a clean page and handed it to her along with the pen Barnes' offered up.

The two men sat in complete silence with her as she scribbled what looked to be a list down on the page, every so often they'd exchange looks –both wondering exactly what she was doing.

After a while, she mutely laid the notebook back on the desk and dropped the pen on top of it.

Barnes hastily picked up the paper up and scanned over the list of addresses.

"What is this?" He questioned, as he passed the notebook over for Jim to see.

"Addresses." She answered, "Of places just like the one you raided tonight."

Before either of them had a chance to say anything else, Bird looked between them and her voice and tone was adamant when she said, "This didn't come from me, okay? I am not a snitch."

Jim glanced over at her and then back down to the page with her handwriting.  
Even after everything she'd gone through, she was still set to adhere to the criminal code of conduct she'd lived by for years.

Barnes' heart dropped at hearing what the addresses would lead to.  
He wished he could say he was surprised, but in a place like Gotham, nothing much surprised him anymore.

"Thank you." He said, looking back up to where Bird was sitting.

With a weak nod, she started to stand up and turned to leave the office.

"You really should see a doctor-" He called after her as he stood up from behind the desk.

"No." Bird cut him off.

Just as she reached the door of the office, she caught sight of Eliza from across the station, she was sitting in a chair next to one of the desks with a dark gray blanket wrapped around her.

Bird slowed to a stop and looked down as she hugged Jim's coat around herself and thought of what Eliza had told her about how she didn't have anyone to miss her.

With her eyes pinned shut, Bird thought of how after all the smoke cleared at the scene of the crime –while the patrons of the auction house were being led out in cuffs and lined up against the outside of the building, she'd watched the girls huddled together in small groups.

All of them still scared with most of them not having anywhere to go or any idea of what would come next.  
Paramedics had passed out those scratchy dark gray blankets to try and help keep them warm in the cold night air while the police were trying to sort everything out and organize a way to get everyone –victims and criminals, back to the precinct.

That was it –a cheap blanket cut from itchy fabric, that was all the comfort those other women had in the first several minutes of freedom from the human cage they'd been held in.

Meanwhile, Bird was off to the side with Jim putting his own coat around her and trying his best in all of the chaos to make sure she wasn't hurt and assuring her that it was going to be okay.

"What happens to them?" Bird asked as her eyes slowly blinked back open, "To the other girls?"

"Well…" Barnes said, as he stepped out from behind the desk and leaned against the front of it with him arms crossed, "We're trying to get them all seen by a doctor, but a lot of them are refusing… no insurance."

His voice lowered and she could hear the emotion in his tone, "We're trying to get them clothes and places to go, for now at least –but most of the shelters are already full. Some of them have already ran off, but the ones still here will get a hot meal-"

"I don't understand." Bird admitted as she turned back to face him with her face contorted, "These girls have been through hell, you get that right? They're terrified and cold and most of them don't have anyone to come and get them or anywhere to go. Why isn't there a program or some kind of organization to help them?"

Her bottom lip started to tremble as she spoke, but she held down her emotions so her voice was clear as she spoke.

"There are some programs." Jim answered, "They're doing everything they can."

"Then why are so many of those girls still here?" Bird demanded to know, her pale cheeks taking on a darkened hue, "Shouldn't there be places they can go?"

When Barnes and Jim both looked back at her with solemn expressions, but neither voiced an answer; Bird became even more distraught and huffed, "I don't… I don't… I don't understand, why aren't these programs doing more?"

"The funding isn't there." Barnes finally explained, "Resources are all stretched thin and the sad truth is that when there's an influx of victims, like tonight –there is only so much the system can do for them."

Her mouth hung open and a puzzled expression was apparent on her face, as if she just couldn't wrap her mind around that the reality of the grim situation.

Despite her rough start to life, when the Wayne's had finally found her and adopted her, she was five years old and since then she hadn't wanted for anything.

There was no worrying about where her next meal was coming from. If she'd been sick, there was never a fear over how to pay medical bills.  
She'd never had to make the decision between putting gas in her car or paying the electric bill.

Jim let out the breath he'd been holding as he watched her continue to be completely bewildered by what she was being told.

Looking back out into the station, she saw some of the uniformed officers walking in with bags filled to brim with hot meals from the nearby all night diner.

"If there's no funding then who bought them all this food?" Bird asked.

"I did." Barnes admitted.  
He'd paid for it all from his own pocket.

"There are really no resources out there to help them?" Bird's voice shook as she fought against the lump building in her throat.

"Not many." Jim's voice was so low she could just barely hear him over the chaos in the station from below.

"Then the system is broken." Bird's hoarse voice hissed from between her teeth.

"It certainly needs some work." Barnes said with a quick nod, "No one's arguing with you there."

"If…" Bird's breathing was labored as she swallowed and tried to keep her voice steady, "If I get you money, you can funnel it into the right programs to help these girls, right? I mean, like… you know the proper channels for that?"

"I do." Captain Barnes nodded with an unsure expression on his face as he watched her.

"Okay." She nodded, "What time do you get to work in the morning?"

Stepping away from the desk, Barnes looked her in the eyes as he promised, "You get me that money and I don't care if it's the middle of the night –I'll get it to where it needs to go to help these girls."

Just as Bird started to leave, Barnes took a few more steps after her and said, "Miss Wayne…"

When she turned to face him, he said, "I'm sorry for what you've gone through and this list you've gave me –along with the money you're talking about, it's going to help these girls and many more."

Bird's eyebrows lowered as she looked at him and guessed, "But?"

With a heavy sigh, Barnes laid the cards on the table, "Crime –of any sort, breeds and enables more crime."

Seeing her had her attention, he continued, "You see, the problem is… is that a lot of criminals want to pride themselves in the lines they don't cross. Someone who deals drugs will say, 'hey, at least I didn't rob a bank'. Then the bank robber says, 'I might have stolen money, but at least I didn't hurt anyone'. Then you've got the one who car-jacked someone and beat the driver to bloody pulp saying, saying he'd never hurt woman… that at least he didn't rape anyone-"

"And then the rapist says, 'at least I didn't kill anyone'?" Bird cut in with an arched brow.

"But what they all fail to see is that crime, ranging from petty theft to murder, is still crime. It tips the scales and throws society off balance and the lesser crimes pave the way for bigger ones. When you aid and abet in criminal activity on any level it starts a domino effect of sorts." Barnes reasoned, "The good you're doing here won't excuse you from the crimes you commit tomorrow. Do you understand that?"

"Captain Barnes." Bird lowered her head and looked at him from under her brows, "I gave up trying to make up for the bad I've done a long time ago."

"I understand that we're not friends. You're saying that while I'm a victim tonight; tomorrow I'm fair game in your mission to clean up the city." She breathed, looking back out across the police station, "But this isn't about me. Tonight, this is about those girls who don't have someone at home waiting on them."

•••

It was close to three hours later that Bird was making her way into Oswald's mansion.

She'd gotten ahold of the bank manager from one of the banks where she had accounts and gotten him to come in and open the bank for her –where she'd then proceeded to make a very large cash withdrawal.

Then she'd returned to the station and dropped a duffel bag stuffed full of cash onto Barnes' desk, to his complete and utter dismay.

After that she'd had Bullock drive her to Oswald's –even though Jim kept insisting he'd take her wherever she wanted to go. She couldn't bring herself to be around Jim anymore for the night.

He was worried about her and just couldn't seem to shut the cop in him off long enough to let her breathe.  
If he wasn't asking one question after another, then he was sitting there –watching her with those eyes that revealed he didn't come close to believing her when she repeatedly assured him she was fine.

For someone who didn't care much to talk about his own feelings –he was sure trying to get her to open up.

But Bullock was different, he'd been warmer to her that night then she could ever remember in the past –but he wasn't looking to make anyone else's problems his own.

So he'd let her be during the drive to the bank and back to the station and then to the place she was currently calling home.

Her bare feet padded along the hallway floor as she avoided the questions and shocked expressions from the guards and Oswald's henchman.

Finally, she found her friend in one of the sitting rooms –with a glass of red wine in his hand as he tried to unwind in front of the fire place.

"Hey." Bird's dry throat somehow managed to croak out as she stood in the doorway.

"Bird." He greeted, the tone of his voice immediately changing to one of fear when he looked up at her.

The glass he'd been holding fell the floor and shattered upon impact as the red liquid splashed across the stone tiles.

Scrambling to his feet, his eyes only grew wider as he looked her over.

Her hair was a tangled mess, with make-up smears on her face. Her dress was torn and fabric mangled –he didn't miss the staples holding the top closed and she wasn't even wearing any shoes.

"What… how…" His mouth couldn't keep up with the rapid fire questions in his brain, with a frustrated noise on his lips, his hands clenched into tight fists at his sides and the line of questioning changed as he growled, "Who?"

"It doesn't matter." Bird replied, as she dropped her arms down to her sides and walked over to the couch he'd been sitting on.

"I will... I will make them pay for this!" He hissed through his teeth.  
Internally he swore that whoever had hurt his friend and left her in that state was going to endure so much pain and suffering that they'd wish they'd never even been born.

"Oswald." Bird calmly said, as she sat down and reached up to tug on his sleeve and get his attention when it became apparent that his mind was already drowning in blood soaked revenge fantasies.

When he turned and looked down to where she was sitting, Bird nodded with an understanding expression and explained, "They're already dead."

Hearing the news did little to sooth the throbbing ache behind his eyes, but he sat down next to her and managed to release his rage compressed jaws, "What happened?"

"Some people wanted to auction me off the highest bidder." She answered, leaning forward off the couch to pick up the bottle of wine off the coffee table before settling back into the cushions.

Reaching up, he had to loosen his tie when it felt like his air supply was shut off.  
He'd gotten used to her staying gone for days on end and hadn't thought it much out of the ordinary when she'd never returned the night before.

"Nothing happened." She quickly added, knowing exactly where the next logical train of thought would lead him, "I'm fine."

"You're not fine." He argued, watching as she took a drink from the bottle of wine.

"I'm not fine." She agreed with him, being truthful with someone for the first time all night.  
With another drink down the hatch, she assured him, "But I will be."

"Tell me what to do, Bird." He pleaded when he was at a complete loss of what to say or do to help her, "I gave the new captain of the GCPD a list of the other spots I knew about." She admitted, "But you have to make sure that none of the people who work for you get the bright idea to open anything like that up."

"Done." Oswald promised.

"And if someone does –if someone tries to start up some ring like that, then-" Bird started to say.

"We'll not only punish them…" Oswald cut her off, "We'll make an example out of them."

A weak, but genuine smile spread over her lips a she looked over at him.

For all of their fights and butting heads on a nearly day-to-day basis; he always seemed to be there when she needed him the most.

Countless times she'd been asked about their friendship from people who just couldn't understand she saw in him.

This was it.

This was her best friend.

The one person who knew her better than anyone else ever had –even over her own family; perhaps the only person on earth who was content to simply let her exist without and judgement.

It was times like this, when just his very presence could start to erase the darkness she'd faced down, that she found herself taken back to the day they'd first met.

She'd never felt anything like that before; a bond that was instantly set in stone.  
Strong enough to withstand the worst weather and all attempts to chip away at it.

Even though the years since that first day had sent them both down paths they'd hadn't anticipated and shaped into them both into different people –there were days when it felt like nothing had changed at all..

Settling back into the couch further, she reached over grabbed onto his arm and pulled it over her as she nestled against his side.  
He always seemed so unsure in how to act in certain situations; there were times when he'd hesitate to even give her a hug when she needed it.

He'd always been that way. Human contact had just seemed to be an awkward thing for him –especially when it came to her.

Oswald's breath hitched in his throat as he glanced down to the mess of a girl leaning against his side.

It took a little while for his breathing to return to normal, but when it did, he could smell smoke on her clothes from the all the fire she'd been around earlier that night.

After a while, he was able to relax more with the feeling of her against him and listening to just the sounds of her steady breathing. A slight smile toyed at his lips and he tightened his arm to hold her even closer.

Moments, just like this one, where he felt closer to her than ever –were sometimes the only things that had gotten him through from one miserable day to the next.

Oswald wasn't sure how long they'd been sitting like that, but he knew she'd fell asleep quite some time ago. He felt like he'd been fighting his own heavy eyelids for hours and the feeling in his arm had long since been replaced with pins and needles numbness –but he didn't dare budge and chance waking Bird up.

These was one of the most intimate things he'd ever experienced, to have the person closest to him in the world, lay every defense down after going through hell –and trust him enough to fall asleep against his side.

Times like this only concreted his notions further; that no matter how far they'd strayed from one another… they would always end up in the same place together.

They were fated.

•••

* * *

 **A/N- This chapter pretty much broke me as I was writing it. My poor Bird.  
Even with my broken heart, I hope you all enjoyed it just the same. Lol.  
**

 **Thanks to: Land of a billion lights, SmellYourScentForMiles, Kakkorat is Cake, Shadow knight1121, desi, Guest, Katniss789, ooooheyitsvessa, Love. Fiction. 2017, MzzLightwood, DancingDorisDay, Guest and to xxXWolfsLullabyXxx for reviewing the last chapter. ^_^  
**

 **I know Bird has fell so far and is really in a bad place -and I'm not gonna spoil future events, but I promise it's not going to be forever and there are reasons behind all of it.**

 **Also, if you're still reading and following along with Bird's story, I'd really appreciate it if you'd take the time to leave a review and let me know.  
I feel like I've lost quite a few of you since We Were Born Sick and I'd really love to know who all is still here with me or even new to the series; the support helps out so much when I'm down in a funk and not feeling much like writing.**


	14. In Case of Emergency

**XIV**

" _All reality about me now appeared to be in tatters, taken down and reduced to the civil war of its particles. I held on very, very tight indeed. Because in addition to that feeling, that disintegration, there was rage. I wanted to break something."_ _― Sebastian Faulks, Engleby_

* * *

•••

Bird took a sip of her still piping hot coffee while she sat at a corner table in the small coffee shop and glanced over the copy of the Gotham Gazette that someone had left on a nearby table.

Captain Barnes had come through on his promise to put the money she'd given into the right programs and in the few days since the harrowing ordeal she'd been through, the GCPD had raided every single address on the list she'd given them.

Countless women had been rescued and now thanks to the money Bird had offered up, they were getting the help they needed to start the long process of trying to put their lives back together and move past the hell they'd endured.

With her lungs locked in place holding onto the large amount of air she couldn't release yet, Bird quickly flipped through the rest of the paper to make sure there wasn't any mention of her name anywhere.

She didn't want any known association with any part of it.  
She didn't want it revealed that she'd been one of the girls held at an auction site, nor did she want anyone knowing she'd ratted out the other locations where similar horrific situations were happening –she'd even been adamant to Barnes that she didn't even want her name connected with the large cash donation.

Finally, when she didn't see any mention of her anywhere in the paper she let out the breath she'd been holding and closed her eyes, trying to push everything that had recently happened from her mind.

Her dreams had been filled with near constant streams of nightmares –some of them taking her back to the night she'd almost died as a teenager, while others seemed completely off the wall and had her waking up in a cold sweat.

She took another drink from her coffee and started to fold up the paper to toss it back over onto the table she'd swiped it from when someone pulled the chair out across the small square table.

Keeping her head lowered, Bird looked up from under her dark coated lashes to see Jim watching her as he silently sat down across from her.

The detective had called her several times over the last couple days and even stopped by Oswald's to try and check on her, but she'd had Gabe send him away.

"You finished with that?" Jim finally asked, nodding to the folded up paper in her hands.

Silently, she reached out and handed him the paper –watching him closely as he opened it and started to read that morning's news.

Over the last few days, Jim probably hadn't gotten much more sleep than Bird had.  
Besides her constant refusal to see him or answer his phone calls; he'd been incredibly busy with all the raids his strike-force had been tasked with.

The idea of a safer Gotham still seemed like a nearly impossible far off goal, but for the first time in a long time –he was feeling like all the effort he was putting in was yielding results.

Most of that had been in part to following up the leads Bird had provided.  
Which in some ways only made it more difficult for him to mentally process; if the small list of addresses she'd offered up could help that many people… then he couldn't help but feel slightly angry that she hadn't done anything with the information until she was the one who'd ended up in that situation.

Now he was also left wondering how many more lives could be saved and criminals locked behind bars if Bird was motivated to share more of what she knew.  
But he seriously doubted that was ever going to be a reality.

It didn't matter what price she paid for her involvement in the criminal underworld –she kept herself bound by a code of ethics befitting thugs and delinquents.

Bird sat in place, not moving a muscle and barley even blinking as she watched him read the paper like he had every single right in the world to be sitting there with her and he hadn't just intruded on her morning.

Perhaps, what bothered her more though, was that he was simply sitting and reading the paper. Apparently all of the questions he couldn't stop himself from asking in person the night Bridgit had died, and then in voicemails since then weren't important anymore.

"You're just going to sit there?" Bird finally asked.

"I don't know what else to do." Jim openly admitted to her, "The more I try to talk to you –the more you make it a point to avoid me-"

With furrowed brows, Bird interrupted him, "If you don't want to talk… then why are you even here?"

"Because I'm worried about you." Jim explained, "So, if talking is something you won't –or can't bring yourself to do, then we'll just sit here in silence."

"Why even bother then-" Her words came out harsh and tone loud enough that the few other customers inside stopped what they were doing to look over in her direction.  
But Jim didn't even let her finish her complaint and sternly said, "So you know you're not alone."

Bird's gaze fell down to the table between them and Jim adjusted in his seat; this was typically the point in their conversations that she'd flee and blatantly ignore him when he went after her.

But not today.  
Today she didn't make any attempt to run off and her list of snappy remarks had run as empty as the anger she'd been directing at him.

He glanced at her from over the top of the morning paper, he wasn't sure if this approach was going to have a different outcome, but it certainly couldn't bring worse results than he'd been getting.

It had taken him a while, longer than he'd care to admit, to get over the initial anger which had stemmed from her refusal to speak to him at all.  
He understood that everyone handled trauma differently and in being so worried about what she'd gone through –he'd let it get the best of him.

Now that some time had passed, he'd been able to see the situation much clearer than he'd previously done and could now see that Bird was simply being Bird.

"Jim…" She breathed, pausing to take another drink of her coffee. Even with the caffeine she was still lacking the energy to deal with anyone. "I'm fine… how long are you going to hover like this?"

"Until you stop saying you're fine." He answered, folding up the paper and laying it to the side.

Their eyes locked and she gave a small shake of the head. Admitting to Oswald that she wasn't okay was one thing –but having to say it to anyone else was another deal entirely.

When you choose a life of crime and to surround yourself with people who live outside of the law, one of the lessons learned early on is to never show weakness.

Pulling her eyes away, Bird managed to take a deep breath, but when she opened her mouth nothing came out.

Jim's eyebrows raised as he watched and waited to see what she had to say next.

"How did they even get you?" He questioned when she remained silent. He'd seen her hold her own in countless dangerous situations.  
It wasn't just that she knew how to fight –it was that she wasn't afraid to do so.

She'd even taken down armed assassins when they were after her brother.

One of the many unanswered questions he had burning away in his mind for the last few days was how the hell they'd even gotten Bird inside of that place. He couldn't have imagined that she'd have went peacefully.

"I was in the wrong place at the wrong time." She answered, taking another drink of her morning coffee.

"I don't understand…." He started to say but his voice trailed off and Bird's eyebrow arched as she snarkily countered, "Wow, detective. In the business of asking victims why they didn't fight back?"

"No." He stated, "I'm just trying to understand what happened that night."

"I couldn't fight back, Jim." Bird whisper-yelled at him as she leaned in across the table and her face twisted up into an unreadable expression when she seemed to be talking more to herself than to him, "I don't know why. I just… I just couldn't. When Selina and Bridgit were ready to leave, I couldn't even manage to stand up and go with them. I just…"

Sitting back down in her seat, Bird adjusted her dark plum jacket and gave a helpless shrug, "Life is just too much sometimes, you know?"

Now it was his turn to lean in over the table with nothing but concern etched onto his face, "What are you saying?"

"Nothing." She replied with a low unhinged laugh, "I should get going, I've got an appointment with my lawyer… and then off see if Bruce is still giving me the silent treatment."

"Bird, wait-" He called after her, but she ignored him as she stood up and walked away, tossing her nearly empty cup into the trashcan by the door.

She hadn't even made it to her car when Jim caught up with her, quickly moving to get in front of her on the sidewalk.

"I'm going to be late." Bird complained.

"You can't say something like that and then just walk away." Jim pointed out with his face still wearing the same worried expression, "What do you mean by life is too much?"

"Exactly how it sounded." She sighed, dropping her arms to her sides.  
With everything she was facing down, most days she didn't even want to get out of bed, but she had to. She had to keep fighting for her brothers sake and so they could bring Gertrud home and put an end to Galavan's reign of terror.

She'd gone through and survived a lot in her life –but most days her current predicament made her feel like she was slowly sinking in quicksand and there was nothing to grab onto to keep her head above it.

She was drowning.

"Meaning…" Jim tried to lead her into admitting what he was scared she was trying to allude to.  
It wasn't like Bird to just give up, but with everything she'd recently gone though, he feared it might be a possibility that she was just trying to find a way out of it all.

When she wouldn't say anything, he cleared his throat, "It's too much… like, you just want it all to end?"

"That's not what I meant." She argued, realizing exactly why he was so worried, "I'm not suicidal."

His eyes narrowed as he faced her in an attempt to get a better read on her body language, to gauge whether or not she was a danger to herself.

"I'm not!" She loudly exclaimed before pulling in a breath and managing to lower her voice down to a more suitable tone for the close proximity in which they were standing, "You misunderstood me, Jim."

"Misunderstood you?" He repeated back.  
There were only so many ways in which an admission like the one she'd made could be taken and not a one of them was good.

"There is just a lot going on that you don't know-"

"Yeah." He cut her off, "You keep telling me that, but you won't tell me exactly what it is that's been going on."

"Look-" She started to say, but didn't get a chance to finish as a teenager pushed his way between them –nearly knocking Jim down.

The boy was dressed in all black with dark make-up smeared around his eyes and powder on his face to make his skin seem unnaturally pale.

He stood facing Bird with a bright look of excitement in his eyes, before he said, "I think I'm in love."

"Oh my god." Bird groaned going from confused to severely irritated in just a matter of seconds.

The boy's smile grew and recalling exactly what Jerome Valeska had said to her on the television coverage of the children's hospital event months prior, he continued, "It's definitely love."

With that he took a couple steps back and did a dramatic bow, before walking away with a laugh closely mimicking Jerome's echoing in the air around them.

"What was that?" Jim asked, as he stepped back closer to Bird and watched the teenager disappear around the corner of a building up the street from them.

"Lunatics." She sighed, rubbing her forehead, "It's been happening ever since Jerome stabbed me on live television."  
She was losing count of how many encounters she'd had with different people who all reminded her of that night.

Jim's eyes fell to the sidewalk as he could clearly remember that night in his head. He'd seen most of it play out on a television feed before he'd found a way into the building.

Jerome had tried to use Bird to lure her brother out of hiding, but when she refused to give him any sort of reaction when he'd only pushed the knife in deeper and when she still wouldn't give him what he was looking for –he'd looked down his bloodstained hands and remarked that he was in love.

With the still bewildered expression on his face, Jim looked from where she was standing back over to where the teenager had gone.

When his gaze landed back on Bird, she repeated, "Lunatics."

•••

"What are you doing?" Bird huffed as she stepped out from behind where she'd been holding the punching bag for Bruce to unleash a series of fast and hard hits against it.

"I'd like to go home." He stated, brushing the sweat dampened hair off of his forehead and unzipping his sweatshirt to try and cool down.

"We've barely been at this an hour." Bird pointed out while she gathered up her hair in her hand and held it up off the back of her neck.

"Bruce?" She questioned.  
But he didn't give a response as he unwrapped the boxing flex tape from his hands and tossed it into the bag he'd brought with him.

Letting out a heavy sigh, she shook her head in disbelief at how her day was turning out.

She'd barely managed to get away from Jim that morning after he'd gotten convinced she was contemplating if life was worth living and now her little brother was apparently still so upset over how she'd embarrassed him in front of the Galavan's that he was still barely speaking to her.

"What's wrong with you?" Her voice came out louder and harsher than she'd planned, but she didn't regret it either.  
He had no idea what she'd gone through since the last time they'd seen each other –which is exactly what she'd wanted, but her patience was wearing thinner than usual.

"Me?" Bruce asked, his eyebrows furrowing in anger as he stood back up from kneeling by his bag and turned to face her, "What's wrong with me?"

Before she could say anything, he yelled, "You don't even care do you?"

"Care about what?" She exclaimed, throwing her arms out to the sides and confrontationally awaiting his answer.

"About the way you acted at dinner the other night." He said, his voice nearly in a scolding tone when he added, "The Galavan's invited us to dinner. They were kind and polite –and you were rude to all of them."

"You're really still mad at me because I embarrassed you in front of your little girlfriend?" She couldn't stop the condescending tone on her tongue.

"This isn't just about Silver." He angrily said.

"It is!" Bird accused, "Look, little brother… I didn't want that night to turn out the way it did, but I'm not going to apologize about acting that way in front of those people!"

"Those people?" Bruce bellowed back at her.

"Yes!" Bird shouted, "Those people. You don't know them at all, Bruce. They are not who you think they are-"

"You don't like them because Mr. Galavan wants to change Gotham for the better. He has a plan for when he becomes mayor and you're upset because it conflicts with the choices you've made in your life." Bruce shook his head, "Because you're…"

"I'm what?" Bird's head cocked to the side, "A criminal?"

With his voice lowered he simply answered, "You've killed people."

"I have." Bird openly admitted, "But I've had a reason for everything bad I've ever done."

"But don't you see?" Bruce asked, stepping closer, "Just because you see a reason behind it doesn't make it okay."

"Okay…" She scoffed, "I get why you feel that way… but I'm having a little a trouble understanding exactly why this is bothering you so much now. You've known who I am for a while now… and probably suspected it way before then."

"I just…" He breathed, "I've just been trying to make sense of it all."

Swallowing hard, he continued, "And I can't. I can't understand how you're capable of doing terrible things."

"Everyone is capable of doing terrible things." Bird pointed out.

"But…" His mouth ran dry as he tried to put into words what he was feeling inside, "I know you… or at least I thought I did. I've known you my entire life and what I can't understand is how that person… how my sister…"  
His voice trailed off and he gave a weak shrug.

Bird stood like a stone, waiting to hear what he had to say next. She had a feeling this conversation had been coming for quite some time, but she still couldn't help but feel like this was more so brought on after the fiasco that dinner at the Galavan's had turned into.

"You can put yourself in someone else's shoes." Bruce finally said, "You're the one who got me to see Selina's side when she'd lied about seeing who murdered mom and dad. Starling, you're capable of feeling empathy –and so I just can't understand how someone who's able to empathize with another could do the things you've done."

"Empathy…" Bird breathed, her eyebrows raising in question, "Been reading up on the inner workings of psychopaths and sociopaths?"

She had hit the nail on the head, but he didn't give her a response.  
In truth, he'd been trying for quite a while to understand why she was the way she was.

"Maybe..." He slightly stumbled over his words and found the strength to openly admit, "Maybe if I can put a name –a label on it, then I'll be able to better understand you."

"And what?" Bird guessed, "Find some way to forgive me for it?"

"I'm not a psychopath." Bird then said, pausing for a second to shrug, "At least I don't think so; though I have been told I exhibit several of the traits. And yes, I am capable of feeling empathy… but that doesn't change anything. You don't need some label to put on me to understand how my mind words. It's simple."

"How is it simple?" He pleaded, "Explain it to me."

"Okay." Bird nodded, "Let's say there are three people in the room, okay? You, me and some stranger –and someone has to die. Who would you pick?"

"No one." His face twisted up, "No one has to die."

"Yes they do!" Bird sighed, "For arguments sake –someone out of our group of three has to die, there is no way around it."

"There is always another option." Bruce said, "There has to be some way out of it."

He got lost in his thoughts for a moment as he tried to figure out another option in her scenario, one in which all three would make it out alive.  
Until he raised his head and questioned, "Why are you asking me this?"

"So you can understand how my brain works." She reminded him, "If we're in a room with a stranger and someone has to die –better me than you."

He opened his mouth but she shushed him, "Better I die than you… but better that third person than me. You understand?"

"I…" He shook his head; unable to grasp how she could possibly justify those thoughts, "What if that third person is innocent? They could have done nothing wrong –they are someone's family… how can you so callously choose for their life to come to an end?"

"Because there was three choices, Bruce." Bird reminded him, "There are people who would sit on the sidelines trying to think a way out of the situation –an alternative in which everyone survives. And then there are people like me –the ones who know that happy endings are a thing of fairytales and know that not everyone is going to make it out alive. So I'd make the decision that saved you and me."

"It's not your decision to make. No one has that right… not even you." He argued with her.

"Agree to disagree." Bird shrugged, as she pulled the hair band off of her wrist and messily threw her short hair up in a ponytail.

"No." Bruce complained with a shake of the head, "You can't-"

"There's no point arguing. You're convinced you've got the moral high ground and there is nothing I can say that's going to make you feel any better. I warned you to avoid seeking out answers for questions you might not want answered after all." Bird reminded him and even though she seemed cold and unaffected by his newly discovered disappointment –deep down there was no denying how much it hurt to have him looking at her that way.

It was also eerie how closely the expression on his face resembled the one their father used to wear when he'd look at her.

After so long you'd think that one would get used to the saddened expressions on the faces of frustrated loved ones, but maybe being a constant failure in everyone else's eyes is something no one can truly become immune too.

Fish had once warned Bird that her constantly bowing to both the sinner and saint in her would be her demise and some days that sentiment seemed to ring true enough; other times Bird was just exhausted from everyone expecting her to be one thing or the other.

"I'm calling Alfred to come and pick me up." Bruce announced, no longer feeling like he could stay in the same room as she was. "I'll wait for him outside."

Bird watched as her little brother slung his workout bag over his shoulder and headed for the doors of the old gym she'd been training him in.

Dropping down to her knees, Bird got to work tearing the boxers tape off of her own hands and shoving her belongings into her bag.

One day her brother might better understand where she was coming from –or even if he never did, hopefully he'd at least see soon enough that Galavan was more a monster than she'd ever been.

With any luck, she hoped that revelation would come before he entirely disowned her.

••• **later that day •••**

With a groan Bird knocked the hand away of the doctor who was trying to use a pen light to look into her eyes.

"I said I'm fine." She stated for what felt like the hundredth time since she'd woke up in the back of an ambulance bound for Gotham General.

"Miss Wayne." The doctor heavily sighed, "You were unconscious-"

With a noise of defeat, Bird rested her hands in her lap and let the doctor check her over after the car accident she'd been in.

It was nearly an hour, several stitches and a handful of x-rays later that Bird was sitting up on the end of the hospital bed waiting for someone to come and pick her up.

She had wanted to call her lawyer since she didn't want to worry Alfred and her brother and Oswald had enough on his plate –but she'd been told that her emergency contact had already been notified and was on their way.

Which had left her with a sinking feeling in her stomach upon realizing she'd never gotten around to changing any paperwork and they still had her in case of emergency contact listed as Harvey Dent.

Reaching up she cringed as she rested her hand against the dark bruise that had formed on the side of her neck and down over her collar bone from where the seat belt strap had kept her in her seat during the accident.

Hearing footsteps, she didn't even look up as she slid off the foot of the bed and weakly said, "I'm sorry you got pulled away from work."

"What happened?"

Raising her head, she stared at Jim and asked, "What are you doing here?"

"The hospital called me." He answered, stepping closer and looking her over.

Aside from the stitched up gash on the side of her forehead, she was covered in bruises and small scrapes.

"Are you okay?" He questioned, stopping right in front of her.

"I'm a little sore, Jim." Bird stated in a tone that let him know he'd asked a rather stupid question, "Since when do they have you doing car wreck investigations?"

Now it was his turn to appear confused, "I'm not here for that…"

When she mirrored his confused expression he repeated, "The hospital called me…"  
"When did you put me as your emergency contact?" He softly questioned.

"I didn't." Bird answered, "I never changed it from when Harvey and I broke up. It should have still been him…"

Her voice trailed off as she saw the disbelieving look on his face and she realized, "You don't believe me."

"It's not that I don't believe you." He quickly cut in, "It's just… I know you probably don't have many people to list for something like that, so it's okay-"

"I have other people besides Harvey for stuff like this…" Her own voice trailed off and she stubbornly added, "Like my lawyer."

"Bird." Jim sighed. He didn't want to argue with her and he was more concerned about her than anything. It was just several hours earlier that she'd been telling him how life felt like too much and now here they were at the hospital because she'd ran off the road and hit a tree.

"I didn't list you as my emergency contact!" She yelled with a whine in her voice as seeing he didn't believe her when she knew damn well her paperwork should still have Harvey on them.

"Then why did they call me?" He countered.

"Clearly someone messed with my file."

"To list me instead of Dent?" The tone of his voice was calm, but it was clear he was trying to get her to realize how that didn't make a bit of sense, "Who would have done that… and why?"

She was silent for a minute before her eyes widened and she started to quickly ramble, "Someone who's trying to make you think I'm crazy, someone who would stand to gain from completely discrediting me and getting everyone to turn against me-"

"And who would that be?" He cut her off.

Swallowing hard, she shook her head back and forth, knowing exactly who must have messed with her paperwork but she couldn't tell him.

With her unwillingness to answer him, he tried a different approach to get her to open up and talk about something else, "You wanna tell me what happened with the wreck?"

"I don't know, Jim." Bird gruffly answered, "Why don't you ask the person who tried to run me off the road."

Jim's head cocked to the side.  
No one had tried to run her off the road. Witnesses who'd called 911 had said she'd swerved off the road and right into a tree. Not a single person had mentioned anything about her being followed or run off of the road.

"GCPD did find them… right?" She pushed.

"There's no one to find." Jim answered her, taking a step closer and asked, "What do you remember?"

"There was someone in a black SUV." She shrugged, "I can't tell you if they were male or female –I can't tell you anything other than they came out of nowhere and tried to make me wreck. Which apparently they succeeded in."

When he wouldn't make eye contact with her, Bird complained, "What, Jim?"

"No one was following you. All the witnesses at the scene said you just swerved off the road…" He finally said, feeling a pang of guilt at seeing how his words brought her down.

"Bird?" He asked as her breathing grew labored and she shook her head back and forth before stepping away from him.

The witnesses had to be lying, she thought to herself, they just had to be. She saw the car in her rearview mirror and she'd lost control of her car –she wasn't making it all up.

Either everyone around her had been in on it or she'd imagined the car chasing her.  
It wouldn't be the first time in recent memory that something had happened she couldn't explain.

Like the nightmare she'd had of being buried alive which resulted in her waking up to find dirt in her bed –which had mysteriously disappeared before anyone else could see it.

Perhaps most frightening of all was when she'd followed a hallucination of herself as a child around Wayne Manor.

Without a doubt she knew that Galavan was trying to make her appear unstable and that he'd more than likely been behind changing her paperwork to send Jim to the hospital instead of Harvery.  
Even if he was behind getting perception of her to change… there was no way he could change what she was seeing inside of her head.

"Bird?" Jim repeated, stepping closer; but Bird turned her back to him as she tried desperately to force the breakdown she was slipping into away and regain control of her breathing.

Bird had always had problems trusting others, even beyond her friendship with Oswald –the one person she'd always had at her lowest points was herself.

She might not have always seen situations through the same set of eyes as most, but she had always been able to trust her own mind.

Only now, she was growing increasingly worried that -that wasn't even an option anymore.

After all, a story is only as reliable as the narraror's perspective it's told from –and as of late her perspective had been shaky at best.

"What is it?" Jim's voice was steady and calm as he walked around to face her when she'd turned her back on him.

Her eyes were red rimmed and filled to the brim with tears when she finally opened her eyes to look at him.

"I…I…" She stammered, violently shaking her head back and forth as she clutched onto her own arms so tightly her fingernails left indents in her skin, "I… I can't…."

"You can't what-" He started to ask, but once she wasn't able to hold her tears in anymore and started to turn the other way to put her back to him once again, he gently laid his hands on her upper arms to stop her and said, "You have to tell me what's going on."

Avoiding his eyes she fought against her own trembling chin and cursed every single salt water stream left on her cheeks. Staring up to the bright florescent lighting she forced her eyes to stare into them in an attempt to reign her emotions in.

This wasn't her. She didn't break down like this, especially in front of other people.

Her breath thundered in and out of her lungs and she held onto her chest as it still ached from the car wreck and now it felt like everything was closing in on her.

Oswald's mother had been missing for a while and even with Butch operating behind enemy lines, it didn't seem like they were any closer to bringing her home alive.

Bruce was falling deeper under Theo Galavan's spell, which only left her terrified that if they didn't get Galavan out of the picture soon that her brother would be in even greater danger.

Every single hit she'd taken for months felt like another brick being laid on her chest and more kept piling up. If there ever was a light at the end of the tunnel, it was now so dim that she couldn't see it anymore.

"I'm not…" She struggled to speak through her crying, "I can't do this anymore."

"I can't." She repeated, as she reached up to wipe the tears from her face and jerked away from his hold on her arms as she turned to try and see where the doorway was through the constant tears blurring her vision.

The room was feeling smaller by the second and just like all of her current problems –there didn't seem to be a way out.

Feeling a hand on her arm, she tried to pull away from him again, desperately wanting to be anywhere else but he didn't let go. Instead, he pulled her closer and the next thing she knew she was wrapped in his arms.

Giving up on her struggle to get away, she sank against him, her fingers clutching onto the fabric of his suit jacket while her tears soaked onto his shoulder.

With his arm over her back, Jim cradled the back of her head in his other hand as he held her tightly against him.  
He still wasn't sure what exactly was going on, but he'd never seen her like this before.

"Whatever is going on… you have to tell me." Jim repeated, keeping his hold on her as her body continued to tremble from her near silent sobs.

Her tears kept flowing and if he hadn't been holding her so closely, she wasn't sure she'd still be standing.

Outside of Oswald, herself and Butch –no one knew what was truly going on and that had left her feeling more isolated than ever.  
She'd held everything in for so long, it wasn't just a matter of trust it was also knowing that whoever knew the truth would be in grave danger.

She'd been damned since the moment Theo Galavan had stepped foot in Gotham and she didn't want to bring anyone else into a problem that was also swallowing both her and Oswald whole.

"They've… they've got Oswald's mom." She finally admitted, her mouth hung open as she fought for air, "The mayoral candidates… the Wayne Enterprises buildings… all of it. The murders I was framed for and the Arkham breakout. All of it…"

"Bird." Jim said as he slowly let go of her and stepped back just enough to see her, "Who's doing all of this?"

The tears that had started to dry, welled back up in her brown eyes and she shook her head back and forth.

Almost as if he knew the thoughts running through her head, he said, "Tell me who's doing this and I promise I'll believe you."

Bird bit down on her bottom lip and started to try and look away from him, regretting she'd ever broken down and started to open up in the first place.

"Hey, hey…" He breathed, as he gently took her face in his hands and got her to look at him and repeated, "I promise."

Their eyes locked and bird pulled in a deep breath even though it made her lungs ache and burn.

She'd never wanted to involve him in this but she was so tired of feeling so alone with the burden.  
And for a moment, she selfishly didn't care of the news would damn him too.

Just as she opened her mouth there was a knock on the open door frame that startled them both.

"Sorry for the intrusion." Theo Galavan said, not waiting for an invitation as he walked right into the room with them and offered with a friendly smile, "I was passing by and happened to see you. And I just wanted to thank you again, Detective Gordon, for your support in my run for mayor. We're going to do great things together –you and I."

Bird's heart sank as she looked over at Jim. She could clearly remember a time when he'd told her that he didn't believe politics and policing mixed –but now apparently he was going to be publicly backing Galavan.

With a tight smile on his lips, Jim did his best to politely nod even though Gotham's probable future mayor had showed up at the single most inopportune time.

"Well…" Galavan cleared this throat, "I won't keep you. I know how busy you are, but it was nice seeing you again."

"You too." Jim agreed and didn't let the breath he'd been holding out until Galavan was out of sight.

"Bird-" Jim started to say as he looked to where she'd been standing, but she wasn't there.

Turning a circle his eyes scanned over the entire room, but she wasn't anywhere to be found.

 _So close._  
He'd been so close to not only finding out what she'd been keeping from him for all this time, but if what she was saying was true –then this was the closest he'd come to closing the many open cases and questions that had been haunting him.

Bird was slowly making her way down the sidewalk leading to the walkway of Oswald's mansion. After slipping out of the room and then hospital unnoticed by Jim, she'd finally made it back to Oswald's and she was gearing up to tell him something he wasn't going to want to hear.

They were going to have to kill Galavan –whether they had his mother back or not. Someone like Theo Galavan was too big of a threat and if Oswald wasn't on board then she was going to kill Galavan herself.

There was too much at stake.  
After he was gone they'd come up with another way to find Gertrud. They'd be free to tear his penthouse suite apart and she was sure they could find something to set them on the right path.

But Galavan had to die first.

"Bird." Butch called out when he spotted Bird just about to turn onto the stone path to the mansion, "Hey, there you are. I've been trying to call you."

"Butch." She greeted him with a sympathetic smile as her eyes fell to the mallet attachment on his arm where his hand used to be.  
Tabitha Galavan had been experimenting with different tools she could attach to the stub of his wrist and her latest invention had been a mallet.

Her exhausted brain took longer than usual to process the rest of what he said and she explained, "My phone's probably still in my car…I got into an accident."

"Are you okay?" He asked, stepping closer to get a better look at her in the streetlights.

"I will be soon enough." She shrugged, immediately regretting the movement when her bruised collar bone started back up with the unrelenting aching.

She turned to start for the house again, but he stopped her as he said, "Hey, I got some good news. I found her."

"Gertrud?" Bird's eyes widened, "You found here?"

"Yep." He nodded, running his tongue over his lips and wiping the sweat off of his forehead, "I know here Galavan's keeping her."

"That's… that's amazing!" For the first time in days she finally felt like she could breathe.  
The timing couldn't have been more perfect. Now all they had to do was get Oswald's mother to safety and kill Theo and Tabitha and anyone else who'd played a part.

"Oswald's going to be so happy!" She exclaimed, "We've got to tell him and get a group rounded up and-"

"Hey…" Butch cut her off and grabbed onto her arm to keep her from walking away like she'd tried to do again.

"Yeah?" She asked.

His eyes roamed over her face.  
They'd known each other for years and she didn't hold an ounce of fear towards him.

She trusted him.

"Come on." She complained, pulled her arm away from him and said, "We have to get Oswald."

"I will." He agreed.

When she turned her back to him, he stepped forward and put his altered arm around her midsection to stop her from walking away and to hold her still.

"What are you-"

"I'm sorry, Bird." He earnestly said just before he pulled the syringe from his pocket and held the cap between his teeth to uncap and expose the needle and emptied the contents of it into the side of her neck.

Finally able to jerk away from him, Bird grabbed onto the side of her neck where she'd felt a pinch seconds before and turned to face him. She opened her mouth, but before she was able to say anything at all, her eyes started to roll back and she swayed before her legs gave out.

Butch rushed forward and caught her as she fell unconscious; with a slight struggle he got her limp body up in his arms and repeated, "I'm sorry."

"Oh, don't look so glum." Tabitha said when she stepped out of the shadows and smiled at him, "You did good."

"Yeah." He scoffed as he followed Tabitha over to the car they'd come there in and watched as she opened the trunk.

Butch stepped forward and as gently as possible placed Bird into the trunk of the car, before looking to Tabitha and reminding her, "You promised not to hurt her, remember?"

Rolling her eyes, Tabitha slammed the trunk shut and complained, "Boring…"

Seeing the expression on his face, she conceded, "Fine, yes. We're not going to hurt her. Now go inside and convince Penguin you've found his dear old mommy and we'll see you later."

Rolling his neck from side to side to loosen up his tense muscles, he watched as Tabitha started to get into the car before she looked back and teased, "Smile, Butch. You don't follow Penguin's orders anymore. You're free."

•••

* * *

 **A/N – So, I'm not sure how many of you have heard the news, but *spoiler alert* Crystal Reed has joined the cast of Gotham for season 4 as Falcone's daughter, Sofia.**

 **Now, I have been using Crystal as my face-claim for Bird since I started writing We Were Born Sick back in 2015.**  
 **So this news was absolutely shocking. I mean Bird is Falcone's daughter and then Gotham actually goes and casts Crystal as his daughter in the show?**

 **I have since gotten over the initial shock (though still, how crazy!) and I owe Miss E Charlotte a huge thanks for helping me talk through it and work things out since the news left me entirely unsure if I was going to be able to continue my story.**

 **Since I have been using Crystal as my face-claim for Bird for 2 years, I honestly can't imagine anyone else as her and so re-casting her isn't an option for me.**  
 **But, now that I've been able to calm down and talk through the future of my story/series with my bestie –I've decided I'm going to continue writing my series.**

 **Even though Crystal joining the cast (as Falcone's daughter nonetheless) is definitely a curve-ball I never saw coming and has made things a bit more difficult for me, I've got a few different options and paths I can take when I get to season 4 and we all meet Sofia.**

 **Hopefully some of the ideas I've been toying with will work, but I'm going to try not to stress too much about it considering I'm still only writing for season 2.**  
 **And I hope that even when Sofia is on Gotham, that you'll all still be able to see Crystal as Bird as well.**

 **Now, that all being said, I have to thank all of you who are still reading and following along with Bird's story.**  
 **It seems like the longer a fanfiction carries on –the more difficult it is to keep interest alive and the fact that I do still have readers who love Bird just as much as they did in the beginning is a wonderful feeling and a welcome relief.**

 **I especially want to thank everyone who was kind enough to leave a review since the last chapter: Kakkorat is Cake, Safirefly, Shadow knight1121, chodofaggins, PetrovaLover, Katniss789, Desi, Melody Jane, SmellYourScentForMiles, Land of a billion lights, Love. Fiction. 2017, Ellipse27, ooooheyitsvessa, Amelia, Guest, MizzLightwood and xxXWolfsLullabyXxx.**

 **You all seriously have no idea how much that means!**  
 **Much of the time I can stay in my own little world and write, but sometimes when I'm not getting much response, it can be difficult to stay motivated.**  
 **So just know you're all amazing and have really lifted this writer's spirits.**

 **Sorry for such a long authors note. :)**

 **xx**


	15. Empty Hourglass

**XV**

" _How to Commit the Perfect Murder" was an old game in heaven. I always chose the icicle: the weapon melts away."_ _― Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones_

* * *

•••

"There she is." Theo Galavan said with a chuckle as Bird started to stir.

He watched as she slowly moved her head until she found the strength to raise it and looked at him as he dragged a metal chair across the cement floor and sat down facing her.

Straightening her posture from where she'd been slouched over to one side, Bird blinked a few times. She had no idea what was in the injection that Butch had given her –but whatever it was, mixed with the car accident she'd been in earlier that day left her feeling like she'd been hit and run over by an eighteen wheeler truck.

Checking his watch he proudly announced, "Less than eight hours to go until the polls open up in the morning. I dare say you're sitting in the presence of Gotham's new mayor."

Still not able to speak, Bird wiped the side of her mouth from where she'd apparently been drooling on herself while she'd been unconscious.

"A new day is indeed upon us, Bird." He continued to speak even though he'd gotten no reaction from her, "It is a shame you won't live long enough to see it.

"My days aren't the only ones that are numbered." She finally croaked out.  
As she finished her sentence she moved her tongue and lips around; clearly still trying to escape the effects of the medicine she'd been given.

Watching her with an amused expression he questioned, "Some people never know when to admit defeat-"

Clearing her throat, Bird lamely shook her head back and forth and refused to let him finish his sentence, "You're a dead man, Theo Galavan."

"Awfully brazen speech from someone in your position, don't you think?" Leaning forward in his chair some he added, "You never saw it coming did you? That we'd freed Butch from the mind control he'd been under."

"Butch Gilzean-" Bird's words broke as she coughed uncontrollably, finally able to catch her breath she continued, "Butch Gilzean is a dead man too."

"Is that any way to talk about an old friend?" He smiled with his head tilted to the side, clearly not finding anything she said the least bit threatening.

In his mind it wasn't even that he'd won –it was more that he'd been so many steps ahead that there wasn't even a competition to be named victor of.

"You're pathetic." She nearly spat at him, "Hell bent on revenge against my family for something that happened long before either of us were born."

His jaw tensed and he took a moment to choke his anger back down before stating, "Your family is a disgrace. You come from a long line of liars and thieves."  
Galavan pulled in a breath before continuing, "My family built this city; carved the bedrock on which it stands and now there isn't even a bridge or a street sign that carries our name. We were robbed of what was rightfully ours."

"That's really what this is about?" Bird couldn't help but let the disbelief show on her face.  
This entire time she hadn't doubted that a centuries old blood feud had something to do with his return to Gotham, but she'd been sure that it had to have run deeper.

"My forefathers were betrayed –their legacy erased and I am here to punish those who wronged us and reclaimed what was rightfully ours." His voice deepened and grew with conviction from every spoken word.

"And people think I'm crazy…" She'd muttered under her breath.

"It's remarkable." Theo stated leaning in to get a closer look at her expression and the deadpan look in her eyes, "You're going to die." Pausing he looked at his watch, "Probably within the hour and yet you don't appear the least bit concerned."

"What would you have me do?" She asked, managing to readjust and sit up in her chair farther now that she was regaining more movement, "Throw myself on the floor and beg you to spare my life?"

Without letting him speak, Bird flatly admitted, "You might as well kill me right now because I'm not going to beg you for a damn thing."

"One of those 'I'd rather die on my feet than live on my knees' types, huh?" He reasoned, "I respect that. It doesn't change anything, but I respect that all the same."

"Well…" He breathed out while resting his hands on his knees and looking her over before he stood up, "Penguin should be here any minute."

Extending a hand to her he offered, "Shall we?"

When all he got was a hate filled glare from the young woman still seated, he blew out a frustrated noise and pulled her up to her feet.

In her still medically weakened and mentally exhausted state, Bird couldn't do much other than let him drag her along as they left the room.

Bird's eyes kept blurring as she tried to watched her footsteps across the dirty concrete floor and make sure she didn't trip.

She didn't even bother looking up until she heard quiet but heartbroken sobs.

Slowly, she raise her head and looked around until she saw Gertrud Kapelput sitting on the side of the single size bed inside of a cell, wiping her eyes on a tissue before she blew her nose and continued to cry.

"Mrs. Kapelput?" Bird exclaimed, jerking her arm away from Galavan and moved as fast as her fatigued legs would allow.

Nearly stumbling over her own feet, Bird fell forward but was able to grab onto the bars of the cell to keep herself up.

With a loud gasp, Gertrud jumped up from the bed and rushed to her side of the bars.

"Oh, my little Starling-Bird." She cooed in her thick accent as she reached out a hand and laid it on the side of the younger woman's face.  
Her face was twisted up in fear and pain as she asked, "Wh-where is my Oswald?"

When Bird didn't say anything, Gertrud's tone grew even more panicked as she pushed, "He is okay, yes?"

"He's okay." Bird nodded, but a lone tear slid down her cheek with the realization that it wouldn't be the truth for much longer.

Galavan now had them both; the two people who meant the most to Oswald which meant he now had near total control over her friend.

Confused as to why Bird was there and where Oswald was, Gertrud managed a small smile as she used her thumb to wipe away the tear that had ran from Bird's eye.

"Tell me." She pleaded, "Where is he? Where is my sweet boy?"  
Her eyes darted back and forth and she continued, "You still keep him safe, no?"

Bird shook her head back and forth as she opened her mouth and tried to think of what answer to give her, but she didn't get the chance as the end of a black whip wrapped around her neck and the next thing she knew she was flat on her back staring up to the dust covered and web ridden ceiling.

Gertrud screamed out in horror and tightly gripped onto the bars watching with tears running down her face as Tabitha dragged Bird –kicking, flailing and choking, out of sight into a room off the left.

•••

"You sure this is it?" Oswald questioned as he came to the top of a short set of steps outside of an old, abandoned warehouse.

"I'm sure, boss." Butch nodded from where he stood midway up on the stairs behind him.

"And Bird?" Oswald asked as he looked over his shoulder.

Displaying his phone, Butch replied, "Still no answer."

Pulling in a deep breath and slowly letting it go, Oswald tried to push thoughts of his best friend's absence from his mind.  
He couldn't understand what on earth she could be off doing that was so important she wouldn't even call them back, especially after he'd left several voicemails detailing Butch's success in locating his mother.

"Once my mother is safe, we go after Galavan and his sister. They're going to pay for what they have done." Oswald instructed, just loud enough for Butch and the other two men he'd brought with him to hear.

With that, he took in another breath of the night air and gripped onto the chipped paint railing to propel himself up off of the last step.

It had been rather easy to find an unlocked door into the old space and once he was inside he could see his mother locked away in a small filthy cell.

She was rocking on the side of the bed and crying loudly into the shredded up bits of tissue clutched in her trembling hands.

"Mother!" Oswald yelled out, breaking out in an almost run to get to her, "Mother!"

Screaming out in excitement when she turned her head and laid eyes on her son, Gertrud jumped up but lingered by the bed for a moment –as if she was trying to determine if he was truly there.

"Mother…" Oswald smiled, sticking his arms through the openings in the cell and waving them around frantically to reach her.

"You…" He breathed out with his body shaking, "You're okay. Thank… thank god."

"Oswald!" She cried out, "Is it really you?"

Her fingers gripped onto his suit as she looked into his eyes, she could hardly believe her boy was back in front of her again.  
Coming to rescue her from the horrid conditions in which she'd been entrapped for weeks on end.

"Your sweet face!" She exclaimed, as she reached up with both hands and cupped her son's cheeks, "Like a vision…"

"I'm… I'm taking you home." He assured her, giving her arms a squeeze before pulling out of her grip to go and get the bolt cutter from one of his men.

"Where is Starling-Bird?" Gertrud asked, still reaching through the cell to try and grasp onto her son again, "You-you already save her?"

His mother's words fully sunk in just as he'd gotten the bolt cutters and turned back to look at her.

"Bird?" Oswald asked, his eyebrows forced together as his entire face contorted.  
He couldn't imagine why on earth his mother would be asking about Bird at this moment –unless she'd recently seen her.

The atmosphere in the room changed and Oswald looked back to the men he'd brought with him to tell them to search the rest of the building, but he didn't get a chance.

"And here I was thinking you understood the meaning of consequences." Theo Galavan said, making his presence known as he entered the main room of the building.

"Consequences, yes. I assure you that my understanding of consequences will be made quite clear once my mother is outside." Oswald barked at him, his voice echoed off the empty walls around them and Gertrud couldn't even bring herself to speak as she fearfully held onto the bars containing her.

"Tabitha!" Galavan yelled out.

Oswald's jaw dropped open as he looked over to see Tabitha walking out of a doorway, dragging Bird with her.  
His best friend was staring at him with wide tear filled eyes, her wrists were bound with rope and there was a white cloth in her mouth and tied behind her head to gag her voice.

"Didn't see this coming, did you?" Galavan laughed at the dismayed expression on Oswald's face.  
Pointing to the bolt cutters in his hand he added, "And those bolt cutters are useless, the only way out of that cage is with this."

Oswald's eyes fell to the key that Galavan so proudly presented in his hands before his attention was pulled back over to Bird who was yelling out against the cloth muffling her voice.  
It was clear that she was so desperately trying to tell him something, but he couldn't begin to understand what that something was.

"Very well." Oswald's voice deepened with rage, "Butch, shoot them both in the head and grab the key."

Bird's muffled screams increased as she frantically shook her head back and forth, trying to relay to her friend that Butch had switched sides and couldn't be trusted any longer.

Tabitha laughed as Bird struggled to try and get away from her when Butch cocked and raised the gun in his hands.

Gertrud looked over to where Bird was struggling and then back over to the men and her eyes widened as she saw that one of them was aiming a gun at the back of her sons head.

"Oswald!" She gasped, reaching out as far as she could strain to through the bars.

Misunderstanding her reaction and thinking that his mother was disappointed in his call for violence, Oswald looked over at her and said, "Mother, I am sorry but what they have done will not stand!" His voice cracked and raised with each word.

Bird stared over at where Butch was pointing the gun to the back of Oswald's unsuspecting head and shook her head wildly from side-to-side as the tears that had been burning her eyes finally succeeded in making their way down her face.

Butch swallowed hard as he looked back at her and the hand he was holding the gun in started to shake.

When nothing happened, Oswald's anger and panic grew, "I gave you an order. Shoot them both in the head!"

Everyone in the room, aside from the Galavan siblings, jumped at the sounds of gunshots as Butch shot the other two men Oswald had brought for back up.

"No-no." Oswald stammered as he turned and looked at Butch and then back over to Bird as he finally realized what she'd been trying to tell him, "No, no, no… that… that's not possible. You have to obey me. You have to!"

"That time has passed." Butch argued, nodding to where the Galavan's were standing and trying his best to ignore Bird's tear streaked face, he explained, "They fixed me."

"Tabby is well versed in the protocols of conditioning." Theo said and his sister smirked and clarified, "There's always a trigger word implanted during the process. All I had to do was get him to remember what it is… I'll admit, it took a few tries."

"And now… here we are." Theo said.

"Hey!" Tabitha exclaimed with a wild look of excitement in her eyes as she looked to her brother and asked, "Which one are we going to kill first?"

"That is a good question." Theo agreed, as he reached out and grabbed onto Bird's arm roughly pulling her over to him.

Oswald threw the bolt cutter down on the floor with a loud clank and in desperation clutched his hands together as if he were sending out a prayer, "I-I can still be valuable. You'll see."

His voice was shaking just as much as his body was and tears were starting to spill from his own eyes as his gaze locked with Bird's.

"I so wish that were true…" Galavan spoke in a tone that was almost sincere enough to believe –almost.

While the breath he'd been clinging too slipping out against his will when his eyes landed on the knife in Tabitha's hand, Oswald looked at Theo and said, "Kill me if you must… but let them go."

Bird made a noise and shook her head from side-to-side while Gertrud let out a yelp at her sons words and reached back through the bars towards him, but he was too far out of reach.

"Please!" Oswald's voice nearly came out in a screech as his eyes flittered back and forth from where his mother was trapped defenseless in a cell and Bird was weakened and bound standing next to two people who would kill her without a second thought.

"Doesn't look like begging to me." Tabitha said as she turned to her brother.  
"Indeed." Theo concurred, "Half-hearted at best."

As Bird watched her best friend drop to his knees, she yelled out against the cloth muffling her voice.

None of this was going to make a bit of difference. The Galavan's were just playing with him, trying to take away every last ounce of dignity that he had before they went in for the kill.

Bird tried to move, to get closer to her friend, but was quickly pulled back and Oswald's eyes grew even wider in terror as Theo Galavan now had ahold of Bird –with a knife pressed to her throat.

With his hands clasped in desperation and tears stinging at his eyes, Oswald gave up every last ounce of pride he'd been clinging to as he begged, "I'll do anything. Please, let them go…"

With a heavy sigh, Theo Galavan conceded, "Perhaps your mother has served her purpose."

A potent of light returned to Oswald's eyes and he gained an ounce of hope back that Bird still couldn't bring herself to believe in.

"Don't pout." Theo complained when Tabitha made a noise to show she wasn't ready to let Gertrud go yet, "You still have the former mayor." He reminded her of how they were still keeping Aubrey James tucked away.

"He's so dull…" She nearly whined, "He just moans all the time."

Theo passed the key to his sister and she took a few steps closer to the cell before spinning on heels and pointing to Bird as she questioned, "What about that one? We're really going to let him keep them both?"

"Excellent point, sister." Theo agreed, looking at Oswald and commenting, "We did warn him against going behind our backs…"

"Wait-" Oswald started to stammer, but Galavan interrupted him, "Pick."

"Pick?" The trembling returned to his exhausted body and he looked around the room, afraid of the answer his next question might yield, "Pick… pick what?"

"Who lives and who dies of course!" Theo's voice echoed around the building and made Oswald, who was still knelt on the floor, feel even smaller than he already did.

"I…I…I don't, I don't understand." He continued on with the stress induced stutter he'd been struggling with since the room had started to close in around him.

"Oh, I think you do." Theo argued with him.  
Pointing the knife in his hand towards Gertrud he continued, "Your mother?"  
"Or your…" Galavan's voice trailed off as he ran the dull side of the blade across Bird's cheek and gave a shrug, "You know, I still haven't figured the two of you out."

Jerking her face away from the feeling of the cold metal on her flushed skin, Bird's voice continued to come out muffled against the gag until Tabitha blew out an irritated sigh and walked over to roughly pull the cloth free.

As it slid down and settled against her neck, Bird's mouth hung open and she fought to take in a couple deep breaths.

Her eyes landed on where Oswald was still down on his knees and appearing to be on the very edge of a breakdown.

Tears were slowly making their way down his face and he kept frantically looking over to where his mother was and then back to where Bird was standing. His mouth was open like he wanted to say something, only he had no idea where to even begin.

"Oswald." Bird managed to say and pull his attention solely over to her.  
When he looked at her with a broken and torn expression; she couldn't hold back her own tears that had been threatening to run free.

"Get up." She instructed.  
After all he'd survived and all he'd overcame –it killed her inside to see him having been reduced to a broken man on his knees begging at the feet of someone who she didn't deem worthy of breathing the same air they did.

His body was trembling so bad that he was barely able to get up to his feet, especially with the pain from his bad leg, but he was finally back up on two feet.

"Bird-" He started to say with his eyes still wide as could be with tears still spilling over the brim.

Swallowing the lump back down in her own throat, when she opened her mouth to speak she could taste the salt from the tears that had gathered in the corners of her mouth.

"It's okay." She hoarsely nodded somehow finding the strength to offer him a smile, "We had a good run, huh?"

"No!" Oswald's voice cracked. He couldn't lose his mother, but he also couldn't lose Bird.  
He was living in a nightmare. If Hell truly did exist than he was currently standing right in the middle of it's deepest pit.

He hadn't known much kindness in his life and the only two people who'd ever truly believed in him, the only ones who'd ever actually loved him were now being used against him and the feeling of losing either of them was paralyzing.

"We made it father than anyone thought we would." Bird continued to talk, trying her hardest to keep her voice steady even though her body was now too shaking, "You're going to survive this-"

"No!" Oswald yelled back at her.  
He was sure he wouldn't. Losing either one of them was a wound he was sure would swallow him whole.

"Yes." Bird nodded, "You're going to survive this and you're going to kill them for what they've done."

"Aw." Tabitha cooed, "I think she really believes in him."

Oswald's chin trembled as his mouth still hung open at a complete loss for words while he stared back at her.

"It's okay." Bird repeated.

"It's really not." Theo said with a chuckle, before he looked around the room and then nodded to his sister.

Tabitha walked over and unlocked the cell door, she paused for a moment to stare at Gertrud before she pulled the door open and released her.

With an excited scream, Gertrud ran from where she'd been imprisoned right into her son's awaiting arms.

Bird watched with a small smile on her lips as she saw Oswald's face twist up with an array of emotions, but she saw the smile on his lips and observed how he was clutching onto his mother.

She didn't believe anyone was in the clear. She didn't trust a word the Galavan's said, but she knew that if anyone could make it out of this situation –alive at least, that it would be Oswald and she could die knowing that he wouldn't rest until he'd inflicted punishment and revenge on everyone involved.

The sounds of Gertrud's relieved and loving laughter filled Bird's ears as she pulled her eyes away from her friend and his mother; maybe, just maybe, she thought to herself, she could find a way out of this for all of them.

But her gaze snapped back over to where Oswald and Gertrud were standing when the older woman's laughter came to an abrupt stop.  
She watched as Tabitha stepped back and the handle of a large knife was visibly protruding from Gertrud's back.

With a gasp, Bird felt the tears well back up in her eyes and when his mother slumped forward against him and he too saw the knife, Oswald's voice echoed throughout the space as he screamed out, "No! No!"

As his mother's legs gave out, Oswald lowered them both to the floor as gently as he could, still clutching onto her quickly weakening body –as if he could somehow hold her life in.

"Oswald…" Gertrud said with a confused expression on her face as she rubbed a hand over her son's cheek, "What is wrong? You look so sad."

With tears running down his face, Oswald mustered every ounce of strength left in him to remain strong for her.  
Gertrud hadn't fully understood what was happening. She was dying and by the grace of something higher, wasn't in pain from where she'd been stabbed.

With a shaky smile, Oswald tried to ease her nerves, "Nothing's wrong, Mother. Nothing… nothing at all."  
Swallowing hard and looking into her eyes for what he knew was the last time he continued, "We're together now… that's all that matters. That's all that ever mattered, right?"

"Ever since you were little baby, my little Cobblepot." Gertrud lovingly agreed, reaching to stroke the side of his face again.

"Interesting choice." Theo stated, turning slightly to get a better look at his sister.

With a wicked smile Tabitha motioned towards Bird and replied, "She wants to die… where's the fun in that?"

Bird could feel the tears still running down her own cheeks, but she wasn't aware of much else now. Every breath she pulled in felt like a punch to the chest and the ringing in her ears blocked out all the sounds from the room.

She could see Gertrud and Oswald still talking to each other, but their words weren't breaking through to her.

It wasn't until Theo instructed Butch to kill Oswald that Bird slowly managed to come back into her surroundings.

Gertrud was dead now, no life was left in her crumpled body and Oswald was still knelt over her, tears falling like rain.

Bird's blurry sight went to where Butch was standing behind them with a look on his face as if he really couldn't believe what had just happened.

"You will pay for this!" Oswald screamed out once he was able to pull his eyes away from his mother's corpse.

"Kill them both." Theo apathetically instructed Butch, "Dump the bodies… anywhere." He added as he shoved Bird forward towards the heartbreaking scene in front of her.

"Uh-oh." Tabitha teased, "Looks like we'll have to take care of this one ourselves." She said motioning to where Bird was standing.

"Wait." Butch finally spoke, "You promised you weren't going to hurt her. You said she was just gonna be used against Penguin and that-"

"Circumstances have changed, Butch." Theo Galavan dismissed his argument, "She no longer has any use to me. Turns out she's signed away the shares she owned in Wayne Enterprises. No, better to do away with her now… she's far more trouble than she's worth."

Butch's shocked expression grew. As if he honestly never thought they were capable of killing an innocent old woman and as if he'd believed in his bringing Bird to them that he hadn't put her life in mortal danger.

Bird's teeth gritted and anger focused on Butch; how could he have ever believed anything they'd told him?

Oswald's bloodshot eyes darted between where Bird was standing and then over to the Galavan's, before falling to the handle of the knife still lodged in his mother's back.

"You don't have the stomach to kill me yourself?" Oswald spat at him, "No wonder your family was run out of town. You come from a long line of cowards!"

With a burdened sigh, Theo said, "Fine, fine. It's just as well considering it doesn't appear like Butch here has it in him to kill Bird." He walked over to where Butch was standing and held out his hand for the gun.

There was a small moment of hesitation before Butch finally handed over the gun he'd been holding and would no longer make eye contact with Bird.

"No!" Bird yelled, slightly stumbling over her own feet in a rush to intervene when Theo cocked the gun and pointed it right between Oswald's eyes.

"Uh, uh, uh." Tabitha smiled as she grabbed onto Bird and held her back, "Wait your turn."

"Any last words?" Theo questioned as he leaned down to get more in Oswald's line of sight as he was still knelt above his mother's body.

"Yes." Oswald shakily said and Bird's weakened posture straightened when she heard the tone of his voice. He wasn't crying anymore. No, his tone was quaking with rage over heartache.

"I'm going to kill you!" Oswald then yelled out mere seconds before pulling the knife from his mother's back and swiping it through the air and across the side of Theo's neck.

Bird raised her leg and slammed her foot down as hard as she could on top of Tabitha's foot and then brought her bound arms over to one side and elbowed her right at the top of her stomach.  
With a groan of pain and the air effectively knocked out of her, Tabitha's grip on Bird faltered and she broke free.

Oswald made one swipe of the blade through the air trying to injure Butch, but he was able to block the hit with the metal mallet attached at his wrist.

Their pair of friends looked at each other and then over towards a window, both of them knowing that simply running out of the door wasn't an option.  
They both took off running and crashed through the panes of glass down onto the hard cement below while Tabitha had retrieved the gun from the floor and fired every last round left at them.

"Are you hit?" Bird questioned as she rolled over from where she'd landed on her side and used her knees and elbows to maneuver around in order to get stood up.

Struggling with his bad leg and the pain from the fall, it took Oswald a little bit longer to get stood up but when he did he shook his head from side-to-side. Physically he was intact; however, emotionally he was sure he'd never fully recover.

"You?" Oswald questioned, visually checking her over for any wounds or blood.

"I don't think so." Bird answered as she knelt back down and picked up one of the bigger shards of glass and quickly got to work on cutting the ropes that bound her wrists while they ran together over to the car that Butch had driven Oswald there in.

Letting the ropes fall to the ground, Bird scrambled to open the driver's side door while Oswald was getting into the passenger seat, it was only a matter of time before Theo, Tabitha and Butch would make their way outside trying to finish them off.

•••

With a small groan, Bird's eyes started to open as she squinted in the sun from the windows in the living room at the safe house they'd driven to the night before.

She grimaced when she started to try and move and felt like something was being pinched inside her lower back; a symptom of apparently falling asleep sitting up the night before.

It was then that she realized Oswald's head was against her shoulder and he was still asleep.

Carefully as to not wake him up, she scooted to the side and carefully lowered his head down onto the decorative throw pillow she'd pulled over from the very end of the couch.

She stood up and stretched trying to loosen up her tensed muscles before she bent down and gently grabbed onto his legs to pull them up on the couch so he'd be more comfortable.

Grabbing the throw blanket off the back of couch, she unfolded the fabric and draped it over him.

Once they'd gotten to the safe house the night before, they'd called the most trusted of Oswald's henchman to be there for protection and ready to spring into action when the crime lord figured out their next move.

From there Bird hadn't left her best friend's side, she'd held him while he'd cried and sworn she'd help him kill Galavan –even if it were the last thing they did.

With another stretch, Bird rubbed the side of her neck as she drowsily stumbled into the kitchen to find Gabe and three other men sitting around the kitchen table.

"Mornin'." Gabe greeted as he stopped her and the other guys nodded to her but kept their attention focused on the small TV screen on the counter.

"Hey." Bird hoarsely replied.

"How's he doing?" Gabe asked as he stood up and followed Bird over to the coffee pot.

"Still sleeping." Bird admitted, getting a cup down from the cabinet and adding, "I think we should let him get as much rest as he can, you know?"

He nodded in agreement with her then pulled in a deep breath, "Galavan's winning the election by a landslide. News stations are already calling the results."

"He was always going to win." She offered up a small shrug, "Now, we just have to make sure he's dead before he can ever step foot inside that office."

Bird grabbed the fresh pot of coffee up and then paused with it over the mug she'd chosen; with a sigh she returned it to it's place and turned towards the door.

"Where you going?" Gabe asked, "Probably not the smartest idea to be out there by yourself."

"Galavan's win as mayor just complicates things even more." She complained, rubbing her hands over her tired face, "He's going to be even more so in the public eye now and can make GCPD bend at his will."

"Your point?"

Looking up to Gabe, who stood at a considerable height difference than herself, Bird admitted, "I'm going to get help."

"From who?" Gabe's voice raised slightly as Bird was already half out of the door.

Without answering his question, she nodded towards the living room doorway and said, "Just keep an eye on him, okay? And make sure he eats something."

"Bird!" Gabe called after her, but the young woman was already gone.

It was over an hour later that Bird stood at the bottom of the steps leading up to the doors of the police precinct.

Jim Gordon had promised her that if she told him the truth –he'd believe her.  
Now it seemed as though trusting in what he'd said was the only option she had left.

Bird walked over to where Jim's desk was, but it was empty, along with Bullock's desk across from it.

Her tired eyes were alert as possible while she scanned the entire station until she caught sight of a group up in Captain Barnes' office. She took the stairs as fast as her legs could carry her; just as she reached the open door way she slowed to a stop.

"I assume you have something for me?" Barnes asked as he looked to where Harvey Dent was standing. He'd just been informed that Oswald Cobblepot had tried to kill Galavan the night before.

Theo's story was that since Oswald knew he was poised to win the election, he'd came to him seeking an alliance, but when Galavan declined –Oswald had snapped and attacked him.

"Yes." Harvey nodded as he reached into his interior coat pocket and pulled out a stack of papers, "Arrest warrant for Oswald Cobblepot, as well as search and seizures on all his properties and known associates."

Opening up the stack of papers, Barnes' eyebrows raised as he commented, "Quite a list."

Bird ducked out of sight knowing that she was more than likely on that list and despite how much she hated Galavan, she needed to try and play this smart. Wait until she could get Jim alone to speak to him.

"We'll get right on it." Barnes dropped the list to his desk and questioned, "Anything else?"

"Yes, in light of recent events, Judge Turnball has declared a state of emergency and granted the mayor's office additional powers." Harvey explained to them.

"The moment I'm sworn in, I'm implementing a curfew and ordering your strike-force to begin door-to-door searches until Mr. Cobblepot is apprehended." Theo explained.

"You're talking about marshall law?" Jim questioned.  
He knew extreme measures needed to be taken, but sending the city into a police state would only cause heightened panic among the citizens and their already wavering trust in the police would begin to crumble.

"We're talking about bringing a dangerous fugitive to justice." Barnes argued, "We'll be acting within our legal rights, am I right, Mr. Dent?"

"Absolutely." He agreed.

"You'll have our full support, sir." Barnes agreed as he shook the soon to be mayor's hand.

"Thank you, captain." Galavan spoke with enough sincerity to be believable.

Stepping back from Galavan, Barnes caught sight of Bird standing in the doorway to the room.

Her face was twisted up with an unreadable but nearly wild expression and the look in her eyes was nowhere in the realm of stable.  
Her clothes were dirty and it would appear that her last shower had to have been days ago.

"Uh…" Barnes breathed, "Miss Wayne?"

"It's him!" Bird yelled out as went the rest of the way into the office and pointed at Theo Galavan, "It's been him all along!"

One moment she'd been trying to convince herself to handle the situation as smartly as she could and the next she was seeing red and storming into the office in front of all of them.

"Oh boy…" Bullock mumbled under his breath at seeing just how unhinged she appeared to be. Nudging Jim's side he quietly added, "You wanna know why I call her crazy eyes? This is why."

Jim side-eyed him with an unamused expression and stepped forward as he asked, "Bird? What are you talking about?"

"The Arkham escape and the fires and the hits on the other mayoral candidates. All of it and so much more, it's him!" She continued to yell still pointing a finger at him.

"I…" Galavan stammered with a stunned expression, "I don't know where this is coming from."  
Looking at her he spoke with feigned concern, "Miss Wayne, are you alright?"

"You son of a bitch!" She screamed out, "I'm going to kill you!"

When every single set of eyes in the office stayed glued to her, each of them eyeing her as if she'd just broken out of an insane asylum, her breathing grew increasingly rapid and she ran her fingers through her hair roughly enough to pull away with her tangled hair pulled from her scalp and twisted around her fingers.

"Oh my god. You're all so stupid!" She continued to come unglued, "It's him! He's right here and you're all so blinded that you can't even see it. He is a monster. He's tried to kill Oswald and he tried to kill me."

"I-" Galavan started to try and argue, but Bird shot him a threatening look and continued to divulge the secrets she'd been holding in for so long, "He was the one that framed me for murder. He wants me dead."

"Miss Wayne?" Barnes interrupted her, as he held his hands up to try and get her to calm down some.  
Seeing that she was having a breakdown of some sort, he spoke in a clear and calm tone as he tried to reason with her and bring her back to reality, "Those are some very serious accusations you're making. You need to think about what's going on here-"

"I'm telling the truth!" She yelled.

"What reason could he have to want you dead?" Barnes continued.

Shaking her head and blinking at a rather rapid pace, "It goes back to Caleb and Celestine and the Dumas and-"

"The what?" Jim questioned, taking another step closer.  
He was trying to follow everything she was saying, but it sounded like complete nonsense.

"Starling…" Harvey said, drawing her attention over to him.  
He was wearing an expression very similar to the one her brother wore the night she'd embarrassed him at dinner.

Apparently all she was doing anymore was embarrassing the people close to her.

"Harvey." Bird countered, her face twisting in pain when their eyes locked, "You have to believe me. I'm telling the truth."

His dark brown eyes were still locked with hers and he could see that she fully believed in what she was saying –the problem was that what she was saying was sounding crazier by the second.

When he finally pulled his gaze away and his line of sight fell to the floor, Bird yelled, "What?"  
Growing more frantic by the second, her voice cracked when she yelled, "After everything, Harvey. After all of it… how can you not believe me?"

Walking over to Barnes' desk, Harvey picked up the tablet that he'd been shown earlier that morning.

"GCPD recovered this from your car when you had your accident." He stated handing it to her.

Bird looked down to her tablet with the cracks now spanning the screen, she didn't even have to bring it to life to know what he'd seen.  
The camera feeds of all the cameras she'd had installed in the house.

"I…" She huffed out with her cheeks darkening, "I… I can explain."

"Explain?" Harvey echoed, "Explain to me to how you failed to mention that the security system you had installed was rigged with cameras… cameras with a feed streaming directly to this?"

Bird's lips curved up into wild smile before she broke out into a fit of unstable laughter and took a few steps back to survey the near matching expressions of everyone in the room.  
She felt like a lunatic herself now, so she could only imagine how mad she must be coming off to the rest of them.

But she'd had reason for what she'd done.

"Okay…" she continued to laugh in a tone that made the entire atmosphere of the room shift, "I know how this looks. I know this looks like some sort of crazy stalker ex-girlfriend stuff –but that's not what happened. I was just trying to keep you safe."

"By spying on him?" Bullock couldn't hold his tongue at how ridiculous the excuse sounded.

"I had to be there for Oswald and keep an eye on my brother and I couldn't be around you all the time, but no matter where I was… with this I could keep an eye on you. To keep you safe." She pleaded for understanding.

"Safe from what?" Harvey pushed.

"From him!" She shrieked causing everyone to jump when she pointed at Theo, "He threatened your safety-"

"I think we've all heard enough." Barnes interrupted.

The room fell into silence with the only audible sound being Bird's erratic and heavy breathing.  
This was the precise reason why she hadn't told anyone about what was happening sooner, because she'd feared that no one would believe her.

Bird looked over to Jim who avoided her eyes and then whipped her head back to look at Harvey who upon seeing the broken expression on Bird's face, he cleared his throat and tried to excuse, "She's, uh, she's not really been herself since the time she spent in Arkham-"

The end of his sentence was abruptly cut off when Bird lunged forward and in a fit of anger and betrayal, slapped him across the face.

Harvey stumbled back with his hand cupped over his fire-red cheek and a stunned look in his eyes.

Jim and Bullock quickly rushed forward and each took hold of one of her arms to make sure she wasn't able to hurt him further –or strike out at anyone else.

"Get off me!" She yelled trying to break free, but they both had iron tight holds on her.

Over the threats and profanities she was screaming at the top of her lungs, Bird could just barely overhear Barnes say something about putting her in holding cell and something about a psych evaluation.

She never gave up fighting the entire way down the stairs and to where the holding cells were located. Bird had nearly managed to squirm free of their grip several times, but in the end she was placed into the cell the bars slammed in her face.

Bullock headed back to his desk while he readjusted his clothes and hat that were askew from the struggle, but Jim lingered at the cell a little while longer.

"I'm sorry." He finally said in a soft tone even though he wasn't entirely sure what he was apologizing for.

Maybe it was that as much as he wanted to believe her –everything that left her mouth sounded like a far-fetched tale, or maybe it was an apology for not realizing the serious turn that her mental health seemed to have taken.

"You promised me, Jim." Bird replied back in an eerily calm voice. A stark contrast to the shouting and screaming she'd been doing just moments before, "You said all I had to do was tell you the truth and you'd believe me."

Unable to conjure up anything to say back to her, Jim gave one last empathetic look her way before finding his way back over to his desk.

"If looks could kill…" Harvey breathed as he looked past his partner over to where Bird was standing at the front of the holding cell shooting daggers towards them with her eyes.

"Yeah…" Jim breathed as he glanced over his shoulder and then loosened his tie to pull in a breath.

"Coffee?" Bullock offered as he back stepped away from his desk planning to hit the break room and get a drink. Jim shook his head and declined the offer.

"Detective Gordon." Galavan called out as he walked over to where Jim was standing, "I couldn't help but notice you seem… hesitant with the Mayor's office stepping up to induce Marshall Law."

"Cautious." Jim corrected him.

With a heavy sigh and a look of confusion painted on his face, Galavan pointed out, "You told me we needed to use every method at our disposal to go after Penguin. Men who don't play by the rules. Desperate times call for strong measure."

"I have no problem going after Penguin –with everything we've got. But if we start kicking down the doors of average citizens and start policing through fear, we're no better than he is. The city still needs to trust us." Jim explained what had him worried about the city going into a police state.

"And we will." Galavan assured him, "Because at the end of the day all people want is to feel safe."

Jim managed a smile and nod as he watched the next mayor start to walk away, that was until Galavan turned back and said with an unreadable expression, "Just remember detective, you came to me."

The smile fell from Jim's lips as the words sounded much more like a warning than simply reminding him of how he'd offered up his public support of Galavan's run for office.

He was still standing there lost in his own thoughts when Bullock returned and asked him about what their next move was going to be. When he didn't get a response, Bullock repeated, "Jim?"

Shaking his head, Jim asked, "Yeah?"

"Hey, there you are." Bullock teased as he took a drink of his coffee, "Get your head in the game."

"Sorry." Jim apologized before asking, "Do you believe Galavan's story?"

"Questions like that are above my paygrade and below my sense of wonder." Bullock tried to dismiss and hoped his partner would follow suit, but Jim argued, "It doesn't make any sense. First Penguin is going after mayoral candidates and then next thing you know, he's burning down buildings?"

Bullock opened his mouth to argue but didn't get a chance as Jim voiced everything that was weighing on his mind.

"Penguin's a pragmatist. Hitting Galavan for refusing an alliance? That doesn't get him anything but heat. And then Bird?" Jim blew out a breath, "Something has been bothering her for months now and she wouldn't tell me what it was. She said no one would believe her."

"So?" Bullock shrugged.

"So…" Jim led in, "She finally tells us something and guess what –none of us believed her."

"Jim…" Bullock complained, "The pair of them are an abacus of crazy. Nothing they say or do surprises me."

Seeing the look of disbelief on Jim's face and watching as his partner looked back to where Bird was still in the holding cell trying to burn them to the ground with her rage filled stare, Bullock said, "I know you got a thing for crazy eyes –and hey, whatever, no judgements. Each to their own and all that, but Jim… if it looks like a dog, walks like a dog and barks like a dog –then it's a dog. That girl is madder than a bag of squirrels, I'm telling ya."

"I don't have a thing for-" Jim sighed, but Bullock quickly cut him off with the reminder, "Each to their own."

"Look." Jim huffed, rubbing his forehead, "A few months ago, nobody knew who Galavan was, right?" He continued to get his point across, "Now all of a sudden he's mayor? That doesn't happen by accident."

Bullock heard him out, but didn't give much credit to what was being said. In his mind, guys like Galavan –born into extreme wealth with the entire world at their feet, were practically born on third base with stealing home base as their birthright.

Bird watched as Jim and Bullock spoke amongst themselves for a while before grabbing their coats and leaving.  
She didn't know where they were going, but she hoped that Oswald was still tucked away at the safe house for now.

Slinking back into the cell, she dropped down into a seat on the built in bench and blew out a breath that seemed to rattle from her core.  
She couldn't believe how the day had gone. She'd known better than to make a scene like she did, she knew how to handle situations like this and maybe she could have garnered a better outcome from speaking to Jim one-on-one.

Then she'd have had the chance to explain everything, connect all the dots for him without rambling on like a lunatic and getting the police captain, her ex-fiance, Jim and Bullock to all look at her like she was insane.

Most days anymore, she couldn't be entirely sure that she wasn't crazy. She was seeing things that weren't there, having dreams so vivid that sometimes she couldn't even tell the difference between sleeping and reality and reacting to situations in ways in which she couldn't explain.

Her inner thoughts were interrupted by horrified screams as two uniformed officers brought a man into the station who was screaming out in fear about how the walls were covered in spiders and the floor was a slithering bed of snakes.

"What the hell?" One of the other officers yelled out and one of the uniforms who'd brought the man in answered, "This idiot got into some kind of hallucinogenic drugs; swore the car was filled with wasps."

Slowly Bird rose to her feet and walked back towards the front of the cell.

For weeks she'd known that Galavan was controlling outside forces to make her appear unstable and for the most part she'd played right into it –but there wasn't any way he could control or alter what was going on inside of her head… or at least she hadn't thought so.

It wasn't much later that one of the officers walked over after carefully checking his surroundings and unlocked the cell that Bird was being held in.

When she eyed him suspiciously, he pushed a flip style cellphone into her hand and said, "Penguin's trying to get a lock on a location for Gilzean; he thinks you might know where he's hiding out."

Understanding that her friend must have figured out exactly where she'd taken off to when she said she was going to get help, Bird tightly clutched the phone and nodded in thanks.  
As she stepped out of the cell the officer warned, "I overheard Gordon and Bullock saying they were gonna try and track Gilzean down."

Bird nodded and quickly moved to get out of eyesight before Barnes or anyone else saw her, but instead of leaving the building, she tucked the phone in her pocket and tuned down a hallway.

Lee was sitting in her office going over the last of the paperwork from an autopsy she'd completed when she heard the door open.

Assuming that it was an officer she started to let them know she'd be with them in just a second, but her stomach knotted when she heard the door quickly shut and the lock click.

Raising her head, her eyes widened and she scrambled to her feet as she saw Bird standing there, looking far more unhinged than she'd ever seen her before.

It wasn't all that long before that she could hear Bird screaming from across the station, she hadn't gotten a chance to talk to Jim and find out what was going on, but she'd heard whispers among the other detectives of how she was being held at the station.

Lee's eyes quickly went the phone laying on the desk, but before she could make a move, Bird cautioned her, "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"What are you doing in here?" Lee asked her, trying her best to stay completely calm.

"I'm not going to hurt you." Bird honestly answered, "I just need your help."

"My help?" Lee's eyebrows lowered, "What could you possibly need from me?"

"For months, I've been questioning my own sanity." Bird admitted, walking further into the office, "After all, someone can move outside forces to make me look like a lunatic… but they can't control what's in my head, right?"

Not giving the medical examiner time to answer, Bird added, "But now I'm thinking maybe they can."

Quickly picking up on what was going on, Lee asked, "You suspect someone has been dosing with you with something?"

"I do." Bird nodded as an unhinged laugh slid from between her teeth and sent a chill right down Lee's spine, when she asked, "I mean, I'm not crazy. I don't think I'm crazy… do you think I'm crazy?"

"At this very moment… or just in general?" Lee questioned which earned a smile from Bird.

"I'm not crazy." Bird repeated in a much calmer voice, "And so if it's not my mind making me see the things I've been seeing… then someone has to be behind it and the only way that could happen is if someone was drugging me."

"How long do you suspect it's been happening?" Lee questioned as she slowly let herself relax a little more in the other woman's presence.

"The dreams…" Bird sighed, reaching up and rubbing her temples with both hands, "The nightmares started before I ever got released from Arkham…"

"If that's the case… then you're talking about someone having enough access to you both in and outside of Arkham-"

"I know how it sounds." Bird cut her off, "But I'm telling you the truth."

"So, you want me to draw your blood and test it for traces of hallucinogenic drugs?" Lee's eyebrows raised as she spoke, "If what you're saying is true than I'd imagine having trouble trusting what's in your own head makes it impossible to trust other people. Why me?"

"Because, Lee…" Bird's shoulders slouched in defeat and she admitted, "Right now, you're all I've got."

•••

Bird walked up the crumbling cement stairs to the backdoor of a corner bar in Butch's old neighborhood.  
Not wasting any time she pulled the door open and went inside, where she paused long enough to quietly pull the door shut behind her.

She could hear voices that she didn't recognize and the sound of Butch laughing and it only served to enrage her more.

Emerging from the back hallway, Bird already had her gun drawn and was several steps into the room –but the men were too busy drinking their beer and telling stories of the old days when their crew used to run together to even notice they had company.

"Hey Butch." Bird greeted, her eyes darting around as his friends all started to reach for their guns, "Uh, uh, uh" She warned them.

Letting out a heavy sigh, Butch watched as Bird walked around the tables they'd pushed together and stood across from him.

"How'd you find me?" He asked.

"It wasn't that hard." Bird reasoned, "This is your old neighborhood after all –and I listened to every single story you'd tell about your crew and the little corner bar everyone would meet up at. Because that's what friend's do, Butch. They share stories and listen to each other… you don't stick a needle in the side of my neck and hand me over for slaughter!"

"Butch?" The man sitting to his left asked as he slowly started to reach into his own suit jacket where he had a gun.

"It's okay." Butch said holding up a hand to stop him.

"I never thought things were gonna go down the way they did." He admitted as he picked up his glass of beer and took another drink, "But Penguin cut my hand off, remember?"

He held up the heavy, dark prosthetic hand his friends had given him as a welcome back gift.

Butch's eyes met Bird's near wild stare and he wasn't even sure there was a point in trying to reason with her.

She'd never been the most stable person he'd come across, but up until the recent months she'd held things together well enough.  
Now, he didn't know what to expect from her. He wasn't so sure she even knew what to expect from herself.

Hearing the little bell on the front doors chime, Bird glanced over her shoulder where she saw a pizza delivery boy carrying two large pizzas. He scanned the room before setting the pizzas down on a table and leaving without a word to anyone.

He'd seen too much in that town to ask any questions or linger in the presence of someone wielding a gun for very long; but just as he was leaving the building, Jim and Bullock stealthily ducked in the doors with their weapons at the ready.

The tension in the room was already so thick it could be cut with a knife and both detectives were immediately on edge from it.

"Bird." Jim said, "Put the gun down."

"Can't do that, Jim." She answered without even looking back at him.

He moved to one side while Bullock went in the other, both of them wondering why Bird was now out to get Butch.

"You gonna shoot me?" Butch questioned, as he slowly stood to his feet and held his arms out to the sides to show he wasn't going to fight her, "You do what you gotta do, darlin'. Either way, I ain't gonna beg."

The hand that Bird was holding her gun in started to shake a she lowered her aim from the center of his head to the middle of this chest.  
She'd pulled that trigger countless times on people without even blinking, but now she just couldn't get her hand to follow the command her brain was sending out.

Bullock opened his mouth to say something, but Jim quickly held up his hand to silence his partner.  
Bird was hesitating, he could see it in her movements and the last thing he wanted was for any of them to set her off.

"I taught you how to use one of those, remember?" Butch continued, lightly motioning towards her gun, "God, what were you… couldn't have been more than seventeen when you first walked into Fish's club-"

"We're a little past being sentimental, don't you think?" Bird cut him off and readjusted her sweaty grip on the metal.

"I've known you since you were a teenager, Bird." He clarified the point that he was trying to get at, "They told me they weren't gonna hurt you, that all they wanted was Penguin. You gotta believe me. I never would have put your life in danger like that."

"In danger; like what?" Jim questioned as he looked between them, "What happened?"

Butch glanced over at him and then back on the gun that Bird still had pointed at him.

"Go ahead." Bird frantically nodded, "Tell them how while I trusted you -you stuck a needle in my neck and knocked me out and then you handed me over the very same people who framed me for murder and tried to kill me months ago. Tell them."

"Or maybe I should tell them about how when Falcone wanted me to help get the club back on track last year, how I opted to stay and continue to work with Victor Zsasz instead and convinced him to let you go so you could help Oswald with the club." Bird reminded him, "The only reason you're above ground right now is because of me."

"Tell me what's going on with Penguin." Jim pushed as he stepped a little closer to where the pair of old friends were still in the middle of a standoff.

After giving more serious thought to everything Bird had said that morning, Jim was finding that more and more dots were connecting and adding up to what she'd told them being the truth –or at least some close variation of it.

If Butch could give him the same story then it would be even more reason for him to believe.

"Tell them." Bird echoed.

"Galavan's been telling Penguin what to do." Butch answered as he wiped away the sweat that had started to bead across his forehead, "Knocking off the candidates, torching the buildings… it call came down from Galavan."

"Told you." Bird bitterly stated as she side-eyed Jim.

"Why was Penguin taking orders?" Bullock's curiosity got the best of him, "He's supposed to be running the show now, right?"

"Galavan kidnapped Penguin's mother and was keeping her for leverage." Butch spilled, before directing his attention back on Bird and admitting, "I didn't think he'd do it."

"Do what?" Jim started to ask, but Bird yelled at Butch, "After everything Galavan has done and you didn't think he had it in him to kill an innocent old woman? Really?"

Jim's entire face twisted up and he looked over at Bird with a new understanding of why she'd been acting the way that she had.

He'd only met Gertrud Kapelput once, right after Oswald had taken over Fish's club the year before –but once was enough to see how close they were.  
That same day he'd seen Bird and Gertrud interacting and knew they also shared a degree of emotional closeness as well.

"She died in Oswald's arms, Jim." Bird managed to say, "Right in front of me –and then they were going to kill me too, before they planned on killing him."

"I'm sorry." Jim earnestly answered before shaking his head and repeating, "But you have to put the weapon down, Bird."

"He has to die!" She yelled with her arm shaking even more than it had been and in an unhinged voice she added, "He betrayed us… by rites he has to die."

"By rites?" Bullock repeated back as he adjusted the grip on his weapon, "Sounding a bit like dear ole' dad there, aren't you?"

"Yeah?" Bird bitterly chuckled and ran her tongue over her lips.  
Looking over to him she said, "I am a Falcone after all, right? No use is trying to be anything more than the criminal I was always meant to be."

"You know that's not true." Jim tried to keep his voice steady, "You always have a choice, Bird. Don't make the wrong one here. Butch is still alive –you can still walk away from this."

With a loud laugh, Bird brushed her sweat dampened hair from her forehead with the back of the hand she was still clutching a gun in, "I think it's a little too late for that, Jim."

"Do the math." Bullock cut in, "We're cops, remember? If you shoot Gilzean in front of us… we're gonna have to take you in. Simple as that."

"Feeling optimistic today, Bullock?" Bird asked glancing over her shoulder to where he was trying to get close enough to disarm her, "That only happens if you make it out of here alive."

Jim's eyebrows lowered and he bit down on the side of his tongue. He had absolutely no idea what to say to her.

This wasn't the same person who'd broken down in his arms the day before.

Long past the point of breaking down in tears –she was a different person now.  
She was acting like she had nothing to lose and that made her dangerous to herself and everyone around her.

" _I'm here for Gilzean! Anyone who leaves now… leaves alive."_

Jim and Bullock looked back towards the door as Victor Zasz's voice rang out from the street just outside.

" _Anyone who stays… dies."_

Jim looked back to Bird and realized the comment she'd made earlier wasn't a direct threat to them as he'd first thought. She knew that Zsasz would be showing up.

"Sorry, Butch!"  
A few of his old crew called out as they all bolted for the door and scattered in different directions outside.

"Seriously?" Butch called after them.

"No honor amongst scumbags, huh?" Bullock commented.

"Sucks when you can't count on friends to have your back, doesn't it?" Bird added as she continued to stare Butch down.

Making his way over to the window, Bullock looked out of the wood slat blinds and announced, "We're way out-manned here, partner."

"You should go." Bird answered back as Jim walked over to see Victor Zsasz standing at the front of a heavily armed group of no less than a dozen people.

"We should go-" Bullock tried to say, but Jim cut him off with a reminder of their oath to serve and protect, "We can't."

Blowing out a breath, Bullock pulled his hat off and looked around the room before reasoning out loud, if nothing else than for his own peace of mind, "Zsasz isn't gonna shoot the place up –not with Bird in here. No, cause Penguin wouldn't be happy about that."

"Butch has to pay for what he's done –and if I have to die alongside him to see it through, then so be it." Bird said in the calmest tone she'd spoken in since arriving at the bar.

"This is crazy." Butch argued with her and both detectives were inclined to agree, though they did so silently.

"I'm not saying what I did was right." Butch added, "But Penguin ain't innocent either."

"None of us are." Bird countered as her eyes traveled down to the gun in her hand.

She wanted to pull that trigger and deal out the punishment she thought he deserved, but she couldn't bring herself to do it.

She'd always liked Butch and he'd always had a soft spot for her. The only reason she no longer held an immense fear of guns and knew how to use them was because of him.

Even through the blurry shades of pain and anger her eyes painted over his face when she looked at him; she couldn't pull the trigger.

"I trusted you." Bird hoarsely said as she blinked back tears.

"I'm sorry." Butch replied, shaking his head and choking down emotion of his own, "I really am."

"I believe you." She nodded with a sad smile upturning a single corner of her mouth, "But you still have to die… I just can't do it myself."

With her admission, she swallowed hard and laid her gun down on the table over to her side where Jim quickly swooped it up out of her reach before she changed her mind.

Walking around table until she was standing on the same side of it as Butch and looked to where Bullock and Jim were standing as she gave them one last warning, "You both need to leave."

"You know we can't do that." Jim said.

"Suit yourself." She shrugged seeming to let go of any care she'd gained for the value of her own or anyone else's lives.

He paused for a moment before issuing an apology, "I should have believed you back at the station. I gave you my word that I'd listen to you and then I didn't. I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry too." She spoke in a tone that was just as sincere as it was empty; the hollowed out voice of a broken soul.

The cellphone in her pocket started to ring and she retrieved it, as she flipped it open to answer the call and put it to her ear –all eyes in the room were on her.

Bullock glanced back out of the window to see Zsasz was also on the phone.  
The detective looked back over to the unstable young woman and held his breath waiting to see just what she was going to say.

As crazy as both she and the entire morning had been, there was a part of him that remained fairly positive that she wouldn't instruct Victor to go through with the hit.

If the hitman and his followers opened fire on the building then there was a chance that none of them would make out alive and Bullock didn't exactly trust Bird, but he also couldn't see her dismissing Jim's safety so carelessly when she'd saved his life time and time again.

Bird looked from Butch, over to where Bullock appeared to be on the verge of jumping out of his skin and then over to where Jim looked about as calm as anyone could in such a situation.

She wished that they'd left when she'd given them so many chances to do so; but Jim had a set of personal and professional ethics he lived by –and was choosing to die by.

Her eyes locked with Jim's and she pulled in a deep breath as she listened to Victor ask her what their next move was.

"Light it up." Bird breathed into the phone before she let the cellphone fall from her hands and clatter to the floor –making no attempt to run to safety.

"Get down!" Bullock yelled as he quickly tried to put distance between himself and the glass windowed store front he'd been looking out of.

A shower of bullets hits the bar; peircing the windows and splintering the wood blinds, ripping holes through the walls and exploding the shelves of glasses at the bar.

Bird looked up just in time to see the small gold bell above the doors be shot clear off of it's holder just before she was knocked to the floor.

With a dazed look on her face, Bird watched as Jim scrambled from where they'd landed when he'd knocked her down for her own safety, to flip the table she'd been standing behind up on it's side for added protection from the countless bullets still raining down over the entire room.

"GCPD! DROP YOUR WEAPONS!"  
Bullock screamed out as loud as he could from where he'd taken cover behind another table turned up on it's side.

"Are you crazy?" He then frantically yelled in Bird's direction; still in a state of shock that she'd actually followed through and given Zsasz orders to turn the building into Swiss cheese while she was still inside.

Perhaps she was, she thought to herself, maybe after all this time of trying to cling to sanity and fearing for the lives of everyone she cared about… she just couldn't do it anymore.

Theo Galavan had to die –he had to be punished for what he'd done and removed from her brother's life forever and beyond that she was far too spent to care about anything else.

For weeks her stomach had been sick; tied up into knots with a feeling that her time was running out.  
That all the sand was nearly out of the hourglass.

In that moment when she'd told Victor to open fire on the building, the mess of tangled knots in her stomach dissolved.

No longer was she overwhelmed with the feeling of floating endlessly in dangerous, murky water –when she told him to light the place up she finally saw an end in sight.

She'd made peace with her own fate.  
She didn't have it in her to kill Butch herself, but he had to die and like she'd said earlier if her own life was the price she'd had to pay to see it through –then so be it.

While Jim and Bullock alternated between returning fire and ducking for cover, Bird looked around and realized Butch was gone.  
In all of the chaos he'd managed to slip out the back exit.

Bird gave one last glance over to where Jim was stationed before she broke out into a scrambled crawl towards the same back door that Butch had left through mere moments before.

•••

* * *

 **A/N - Thanks to: Kakkorat is Cake, chodofaggins, Love. Fiction. 2017, iamskittles, Safirefly, Land of a billion lights, SmellYourScentForMiles, Shadow knight1121, Melody Jane, Rasiel Hasu, Katniss798, Guest, xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, DancingDorisDay and Guest for reviewing since the last chapter.**

 **It's really great to see how many of you are still so invested in Bird's story and to see how many of you will be able to see Crystal Reed as Bird even though she's been cast in Gotham now is just wonderful.  
Makes me feel even more confident that I'll be able to keep this story going strong.**

 **This was a really emotionally draining chapter to write, but I hope you all enjoyed it and I hope you'll leave a review and let me know what you thought. :)  
**


	16. Butterfly Effect

**XVI**

" _We were too greedy, grasping for immortality too soon. Perhaps if we had only been patient, content to wait, we would all have forever in the end."_ _― Jessica Khoury, Origin_

* * *

•••

" _I'd also like to address the recent attempt on my life by the man known as Penguin. It is true that he attacked me and as of now he is still at large. Men such as Penguin will no longer be tolerated. These are men who scurry from the light of decency like cockroaches. Men who… not even a mother could love."_

Bird's lip curled in disgust as she stood beside Oswald while they watched news coverage of the speech Galavan had given after it had been officially announced that he was going to be sworn in as the new mayor of Gotham.

In an outrage, Oswald smashed the glass on the front of the T.V. set in with the end of his cane and then dropped it to the floor.

"He's trying to draw you out." Bird quietly said as she looked over to her best friend, "He'll be waiting for us to strike at the party tonight."

"He dies, tonight!" Oswald called out to the group crowded around the television in the kitchen behind a small restaurant they were all holed up in.

Bird nodded in agreement and blew out a breath as she rubbed her hands over her face.

Her entire body ached and her mind wasn't doing much better. She couldn't remember a point in her life where she'd ever felt more exhausted.

But she had to push it to the side.  
Galavan wasn't going to live to see another sunrise and she was going to make sure of it.

She'd already failed by not being able to kill Butch –then he'd managed to slip out of the bar and disappear before she could find him.

It felt as though the entire city was crumbling down around them.

GCPD had already raided Oswald's mansion and other properties that could be linked back to him.  
Arrest warrants had been issued for him and Bird and all known associates.

Just like Harvey Dent had warned her –Oswald's empire was crashing down and she was getting caught up in the fallout.

Evening was quickly approaching, which didn't leave much time polish off the final touches on their planned attack on Galavan's victory party that night.

"Where are the weapons?" Oswald asked, looking to Gabe as he spoke.

"In here, boss." Gabe answered as he disappeared into a storage room for a moment before returning with a large wooden crate.  
Setting the crate down he showed them it was packed with different types of guns and explained, "Got a bunch more just like this one."

Everyone in the room started to arm up and load the guns, while the stronger of the bunch dragged the rest of the crates out of storage.

"No one is to kill Galavan but me, understand?" Oswald announced.

"Boss, I get what you're feeling." Gabe sympathized while in the process of loading ammo into a shotgun, "A mothers love… it's the most beautiful, most simple-"

"Gabe!" Oswald shouted as he thrust his arms down at his sides and stomped his foot on the floor.

With a sigh, Gabe clarified what he'd been trying to get at, "Cops won't let you within a hundred feet of Galavan. Let us whack him for you, please?"

"No." Oswald declined, "He's mine."

"This is why we came up with the plan for decoys." Bird reminded Gabe and the rest of the men in the room.

Oswald had a very unique look about him –he'd be easy to pick out in a crowd and the police were on high-alert with Galavan's insistence to carry on with the victory party.

That's where the decoy plan was going to take place.  
They had enough men for a small army gathered together and in just a few hours when the sun started to set and the party started –each and every one of them would be dressed up in Oswald's likeness.

The army was going to crash the party and Oswald would be lying in wait until he got the chance to take a shot at Galavan.

Stepping to the front of the room, Victor Zsasz looked between where Oswald and Bird was standing as he questioned, "What about Gordon and Bullock?"

Bird swallowed hard and looked over to Oswald, but instead of answering himself, he motioned for Bird to do so –letting her know it was her choice.

"Try to leave them out of it." She answered, but her response did little to clear the air.  
Proven when she was met by a room of confused expressions.

"Meaning what exactly?" Zsasz pushed with a confused but verging on irritated look on his face.  
The night would be much simpler if they were just given free rein to kill anyone and everyone.

"Meaning… I don't want them to be hurt –let alone killed." She admitted to the room. Her gaze fell to the floor when she continued, "But they both know what Galavan has done. So if they get in the way… if they interfere and try and protect Galavan…"

"We take 'em out?" Gabe finished for her when Bird seemed unable to locate the appropriate words.

Bird didn't look up from the spot on the floor where she'd been staring. Instead she nodded her head.

Oswald watched her before he looked back to the rest of the room and said, "Now, let's get dressed. We've got a party to attend."

•••

"Bird." Oswald greeted as he caught the reflection of his friend in the mirror as he adjusted his tie, turning around he managed a soft smile and surveyed the black dress she'd chosen, "You look beautiful."

"Thanks." She struggled with the breath she was trying to take and dismissed, "Have to blend in with the party after all."

"You know…" Bird sighed in hesitation, "You are aware that we're walking right into a trap, right?"

"Of course." Oswald quickly answered.  
He wasn't a fool.

Just as he knew someone acting out of emotion could be manipulated, he knew that Galavan was using those very tactics on him through the messages he'd given in his television interviews.

"Meaning that he has some sort of backup plan to guarantee his own safety." She added.

"I'm well aware that my chances of surviving the night are on the low end of the spectrum." He stated, knowing exactly what she kept hinting at, "I've made peace with that."

Swallowing hard, his gaze fell to the wood floor of the room in the safe house they'd gathered in since leaving the restaurant, "You are the only true friend I've ever known, Bird. Despite what I've said when anger got the best of me –you have always been there for me. Not once did your loyalty falter... even when it most certainly should have."

With a new strength in his voice, he cleared his throat and looked back to her face, "I entirely understand if you'd rather not come tonight–"

"Galavan has to die." Bird interrupted, "And I'm going to see this thing through until the end."

"Even if the ending is ours?" He asked.  
Everyone who was going to the victory party that night had a much greater chance of dying there than of walking away.

Not only was GCPD going to have the place surrounded, but just as Bird had pointed out –Galavan had most certainly taken precautions of his own.

"Then we take him with us." She smiled.

She'd lost count of how many times they'd been in life and death situations –most of those where the outcome seemed bleak at best.

Somehow they'd both always managed to survive up to now.  
Both of them were either harder to kill than your average person or lady luck waited to smile upon them until the last moment –but they were always the ones left standing when the smoke cleared.

As she stared at him with neither of them knowing what to say next and both feeling like this could be one of the last times they'd be standing in each other's presence; Bird couldn't help but think that he'd been right when he'd voiced his suspicions that no matter what roads they took, they'd always end up back together.

Maybe that's really how it was supposed to be for them. That every decision she'd made to try and change her life around was wasted effort.

She was always going to end up right here and maybe that is exactly where she was supposed to be.

The day they'd first crossed paths had changed the course of both their lives forever.  
A bond was formed that had them both willing to fall on their own swords to save the other.

A butterfly effect of sorts brought them to this point in their lives; they were both standing in this exact spot because of a chance meeting years before.

Maybe this is exactly how things were always going to end.

Years might have passed since they met, but in many ways it felt like just mere days ago.

Their lives had burned bright and fast since then and she couldn't help but feel like maybe that's how it should be.

Supernovas are capable, even if only for a moment, to outshine entire galaxies.  
They possess more energy than the sun will in its entire lifetime.

Neither of them were the type to slowly dull and just fade into the history books  
No, their names would be on the tongues of Gothamites long after they were gone.

"No matter how tonight ends-" Bird began with a sharp inhale, "You should know that even with all of our stupid fights and all the times you've nearly gotten the both of us killed… I wouldn't take it back."

"Not a single second of it." He agreed, blinking away the burning sensation in his tired eyes.

"Boss?" Gabe asked as he knocked on the open door frame and got their attention, "We need to be leaving. The group of your lookalikes are already on their way to the party."

"Thank you, Gabe." Oswald dismissed him with a nod and waited until his heavy footsteps were no longer audible before he looked back to Bird.

Clearing his throat, Oswald tried to think of the perfect parting to speak for them.  
From here she was going directly into the party –she hadn't given him much detail on what she was going to do other than saying she had something she needed to take care of before the night would descend into chaos.

Then he would wait until the security perimeter around the building was breached by his lookalikes and GCPD would be trying to rush Galavan off to safety before he'd make his move.

He had no way of knowing if he'd even make it to that point, or if Bird would make it back out of party and if this was the last earthly meeting they'd share then he wanted it to be just as perfect as the moment they'd met.

An impossible feat for sure considering how much his life had changed with Bird in it.

Stepping forward, Bird silently wrapped her arms around him. Clutching onto him and somehow able to keep her frazzled emotions at bay when she could feel his embrace close in on her.

People were going to die that night.

Bystanders at the party, probably most of the lookalikes they were going to send in and even cops.  
It was one of those dark nights where not a soul was safe –but Galavan had to die to pay for what he'd done.

And beyond that, Bird vowed to herself that she'd do everything in her power to ensure that the best friend she'd ever had would live to see another sunrise.

"I love you, you know?" She finally whispered, "I always have."

His embrace tightened when her words cut him deep –knowing that they didn't carry the same weight that his would.

For such a long time now, he'd viewed her in a much different light than she seemed to view him; but most days that didn't matter.  
She'd brought an element of beauty to his life that he'd never experienced before and for that he was eternally thankful.

"I love you too, Bird." Oswald answered back.

Raising up, she pressed a kiss to his cheek before she separated herself from his arms and leaving him to watch as she went out of the door; taking a piece of his already broken heart with her.

•••

Bird managed to slip into the celebration party for Theo Galavan's election win without the police at the doors noticing.

Even though she was now a wanted fugitive in Gotham –their main concern was Oswald Cobblepot.  
A pretty young woman in a designer dress didn't turn the heads of the police solely on the lookout for the crime lord.

The party was already in full swing by the time she'd made it there.  
She'd first done a sweep of the entire location to make sure her brother and Alfred weren't there and to her relief neither of them was attending the celebration.

Gotham's high society were eating hors d'oeuvres and sipping on the finest champagne and wine that money could buy.

The turnout wasn't as big as she'd expected, but with the looming threat of Oswald's so called attack on Galavan just the night before, it seemed much of Gotham wasn't willing to risk their lives for a party that night.

Just as well, Bird thought to herself as she swooped up a glass of chilled white wine from one of the waiter's trays and leaned against a decorative column towards the back of the room; the night was going to be hectic enough as it was without half of the city trying to run for their lives.

Bird's eyes drifted up to where what looked to be close to a hundred or more silver and gold balloons were suspended above the stage with confetti held up by netting until the moment was right.

The silver balloons were glittering in the lighting and kept stealing her attention while she was trying to keep an eye on where Jim ad Bullock were talking on the other side of the room.

If she was able to keep the detectives in her sight then she could make sure they weren't going to know she was there… not yet at least.

"Ladies and gentleman!"

Bird's attention was pulled back down from where she'd yet again been staring at the shiny balloons above the stage and down to where Harvey Dent was wearing a thousand watt smile as he made his way down the center of the stage and most of the attendees flocked closer to get a better spot for the night's events.

Harvey kept the smile on his face as he waited for everyone to gather around before he continued, "Let me be the first to officially introduce you to the honorable, Theo Galavan, the new mayor of Gotham!"

Bird rolled her eyes and watched as her ex-fiancé lead the room into a round of applause in anticipation of the man that everyone seemed to whole-heartedly believe was going to make the city a better place.

Theo stepped out on the stage and smiled at the crowd. Slowly, he sauntered forward with his arms out to the sides in appreciation of the warm welcome.

Camera flashes went off from around the room as every paper in town had reporters there to capture the new mayor in the most flattering light.

The city had long been sick of Aubrey James' lax dealing with criminals and everyone felt like this was going to be the beginning of a new era in their troubled city –little did they know that the person standing in front of them was more monster than human.

When the netting was released and the balloons and confetti rained down over the stage, Bird peeked around the column she was hiding behind to see Bullock giving a lazy attempt at clapping along with everyone while Jim rolled his eyes and gave a harsh stare in the new mayor's direction.

Harvey stepped down off the stage while Theo continued to play the part and voiced his gratitude for the chance to serve the fine people of Gotham –he went so far as to further sell it with taking several bows for the audience.

Bird watched as Harvey shook hands with a group of people and when he moved, his sights lined up with where she was standing, she stepped away from her hiding spot and made sure their locked eyes before she turned down a small hallway away from the ballroom where the party was located.

It was only a matter of seconds before Harvey stepped into the hallway and didn't have much time react when Bird opened the door of the storage room she'd ducked into and pulled him inside.

"What-what are you doing here?" Harvey stammered out as he stared at her.

"I needed to talk to you." Bird admitted.

"Here?" He questioned, "In a place swarming with police when there is a warrant out for your arrest?"

"Desperate times, right?" She lamely attempted a joke, but it didn't bring a smile to either of their faces.

"I know you don't see it, but I'm right about Galavan and soon enough you'll know the truth." She said, but when she saw him open his mouth, presumably to argue about it, Bird quickly added, "But that's not why I wanted to see you."

"I wanted to give you this." Bird stepped forward and took hold of his hand while she swallowed down the stale air her lungs seemed to have trouble pulling the oxygen from while she placed something in the palm of his hand then folded his fingers over it.

When she let go, he opened his hand and saw the engagement ring he'd proposed to her with so many months ago.

"It's really over." She gave a weak shrug, "We're really over."

Despite some time having passed since the day they had agreed to part ways, so many things felt unresolved to her and it wasn't until she saw the wounded look on his face when he closed his hand back around the ring that she knew he felt the same way.

"I blew through your life like a storm." Bird accepted out loud, "And you deserved better than that.

"You-" Harvey started to say as he shook his head and his gaze landed on the floor.  
The blame didn't fall solely on her.

"And I deserved more than someone who only wanted me at my best." She cut him off.

His head rose from the point he'd been watching on the floor as it quickly became clear that she didn't need him to tell her she wasn't the only one at fault.

"The truth is that your life has been in danger and I had those cameras installed so I could make sure you were safe –but I guess it was more than that. I know I'm the one who walked away, but I don't think I was really ready to leave." The raw emotion in her voice wrapped like a noose around his neck, stealing away more of his breath by the second. "It sounds crazy, but watching you there in _our_ house… sometimes it felt like I was still there…"

He couldn't quite find the words to say yet, but her admission was probably the least insane thing he'd heard from her mouth all day.

Bird pulled her eyes away from his face and stared down to their shoes finding herself also at a loss of what to say next –a major inconvenience when they were probably minutes away from Oswald's lookalikes storming the building.

"Why now?" Harvey asked taking a step closer as his eyes went to the door behind her and he repeated, "Why are you saying all of this now?"

"It needed to be said."  
But her dismissal of an answer did little to ease his steadily growing nerves.

Even with her seeming much calmer than when she'd slapped him in Barnes' office earlier that day, he was now questioning his choice of following her away from everyone else at the party.

He wasn't sure if she'd just led him away from danger or right into the heart of it.

"Do you ever think about it?" Her voice had taken on a slight hoarseness and she had to clear her throat before clarifying, "Do you ever think about how different things might have turned out if we'd just left Gotham last year when you first wanted to?"

"It's hard not too." Harvey admitted with a new found honesty in his own voice, "I think about it all the time. Where we'd be right now if we'd even made one decision different than we did."

"Butterfly effect." Bird managed with a half-smile.

"Exactly." He agreed with a sad smile of his own.

"I really did love you." She added, blinking rapidly when she could feel her eyes burning –but no tears slid out.  
She wasn't sure she even had anymore tears to give.

"I did too." He paused, "I loved you so much –more than I thought I was even capable of."

Maybe that's what made it so difficult on them both to accept that their relationship was really over.

Love is forever changing and somehow still there after being stretched far too thin and knotted up and even after being tinted in the darkest shades –it somehow still lives on; tangled around every single shard of a shattered heart.

In some ways for the better and a potent for the worse; they both knew they had been forever changed by their time together and the flawed love they'd been tangled up in.

"You deserved a lot more than what I gave you. I demanded you to be open and honest with me and then when I didn't like picture you painted… I chose to ignore the parts I didn't like." He began to say, "I guess I thought that if you just could see there was a life out there far different from the one you were living… and that if I could just love you enough then…"

His voice trailed off and his usually proud shoulders fell in defeat with a shrug.

"You can't love someone back to good, Harvey." Bird softly stated.

"I know that now." He agreed, choking the lump back down that was steadily growing in his throat.

Feeling a bit centered and more at peace than the last time she'd seen him, the smile on her lips grew a little more when she stepped forward and rose up to press a soft, but heartfelt kiss to his readily awaiting lips.

When she pulled back, he took his time opening his eyes before asking, "What now?"

Stepping closer to the door, Bird instructed, "Staying low is going to be your safest option."

"What-"

"Your average gunman won't be shooting at the ground." She gave a simple enough answer that only served to confuse him further before the sounds of shattering glass and rapid fire gunshots echoed thorough out the entire building.

He now had the answer to his earlier questioned as to whether she'd led him away from danger or right into it.  
She'd gotten him away from where Oswald's men were launching their all-out assault on the newly elected mayor's celebration.

"Starling!" He yelled, quickly rushing forward when her hand landed on the door handle, but before he could stop her she'd pulled the door open and left.

Quickly shutting the door behind her and using the key he'd found to lock the door, Gabe turned to look at Bird and questioned, "You alright?"

"Yeah." She nodded, as she reached up and unpinned her hair.  
Letting it messily fall and frame her face, Bird rubbed her scalp and thanked him for his assistance with trapping Harvey safety in the storage room.

Gabe glanced back to where the door that was muffling Harvey's voice as he continued yelling out her name while beating on the door, Gabe looked back to Bird and asked, "How'd it go?"

Ignoring the question, Bird held out her hand for the gun she'd instructed him to bring for her.

Once she had the weapon in her hand, she reminded him, "We don't know how many people Galavan might have here –so make sure no one goes into that room. Keep him as safe as you can –but get out of here before the place is completely filled with GCPD."

Glancing back to the room, Bird added, "After that he's on his own."

"Got it." He nodded, watching as she headed for the exit at the end of the hallway before yelling after her, "Be careful!"

Bird pushed the door open and immediately laid her eyes on the guard who'd been positioned on that door.

He'd been expecting for someone to try and sneak up on him from the outside and not someone to come out the door from behind him.  
Before he could even get turned around Bird hit him in the head with her gun and stepped back as his unconscious body landed on the ground.

She took care to scan her surroundings before she knelt down to pick up the officer's radio where crackling voices were sounding from.

" _Remaining officers stay inside and clear the lobby. Primary target is on the move. Detective Gordon is enroute to the rear entrance with the mayor. Need that limo at the back service entrance, stat."_

•••

"Get him out of here!" Jim yelled as he and Theo Galavan ran from the building where shots were still being fired.

The limo driver quickly got out of the driver's seat and turned to open the back door of the elongated car, but was brought down by a shot to the back.

Turning around, Jim drew and pointed his gun at the threat –which turned out to be Oswald, brandishing a shot gun.

Ducking down for cover behind the detective, Galavan peered around him to see what was happening.

"Hello, Jim." Oswald greeted him before instructing, "Please, step aside."

Keeping his gun pointed at Oswald, Jim answered, "You know I can't do that."

"You would if you knew what kind of man you were protecting." Oswald argued.

Not wanting his cover to be blown and hoping to be rid of the nuisances once and for all, Galavan stood a little taller and ordered, "Shoot him, detective."

"Oswald… listen to me." Jim pleaded, "You have to put the gun down!"

The enraged expression on Oswald's face gave way to a look of gut-wrenching heartache as he admitted to the detective he still considered a friend, "He killed my mother, Jim."

Jim didn't lower his weapon, but the look on his face softened when he admitted, "I know."

Galavan jerked his head to the side in shock as he looked at Jim before demanding, "Detective Gordon, I am ordering you to put that man down now!"

Seeing he had Jim's attention and hoping his words might break through to the one he'd done so many favors for, Oswald limped forward slowly, "He had her murdered in front of me. I held her, watched her die."  
His voice broke and tears filled his raw eyes to the brim all over again, "Do you know what that's like? It changes a person."

"Sorry bout your mother Penguin, but I'm gonna need you to put the shot gun down on the ground, slowly. Now!" Bullock said as he made his way over to them and cocked his gun, taking aim at the side of Oswald's head.

"Actually…" Bird said as she snuck up behind him, "How about you put your gun down and back up."

Turning his head slightly, Bullock blew out a sigh at seeing Bird had a gun on him and after the stunt she'd pulled earlier that day with ordering Zsasz to shoot up the building they were all in –he didn't doubt for a second she'd pull that trigger.

"Gotta be kidding me…" He breathed, as he removed his finger from the trigger and held his hands up in surrender, he muttered, "Shoulda known, can't have one without the other."

"Kill them, detective!" Galavan nearly hissed into Jim's ear as he watched Bullock lay his gun down on the ground and take several steps away from Oswald, just as Bird had instructed him to do."

Oswald looked at Bird and she gave him a small smile and nodded back.  
Turning his head and looking back to Jim, he said, "Someone is going to die tonight. We've made our peace with that. I suggest the new mayor does as well."

"Don't make me shoot you." Jim's voice was gruff, but in reality,he was pleading with the criminal.  
He could understand perfectly why Oswald would want to take revenge into his own hands, but no one was above the law and he couldn't stand back and let someone –even someone as guilty as Galavan, be murdered on his watch.

With the Bullock no longer armed, Bird took aim in Jim's direction and looked down the shiny metal of the gun reflecting the lights around them before her eyes rose to focus on his face.

"Please just walk away." She pleaded.

"I can't-" Jim started to say as he grew increasingly uncomfortable with two guns now focused on him.

"You have to!" She yelled back. Pausing for a moment to regain control before saying, "Don't make us go through you to get to him."

"They are unstable, dangerous criminals." Theo Galavan continued to speak from where he was behind Jim, "Shoot them!"

From the corner of Bird's eye she spotted movement on the roof. It took her eyes a little while to focus in the darkness and streetlights until she saw a sniper gun being placed on the ledge.

Her first thought was that it was someone from the GCPD strike-force, that was until the figure moved and Bird' could see they had a long ponytail and she immediately knew the shadowed figure was Tabitha Galavan.

"No!" She shouted as she ran towards Oswald and screamed, "Get down!"

A loud gunshot rang out and Jim quickly echoed Bird's instructions, "Get down. It's coming from above!"

Bird and Oswald both let out a cry of pain in near unison when they both landed on the ground.  
Immediately his hand went to his shoulder, to the source of the radiating pain that was now shooting down his entire arm like straight acid in his veins.

Bullock scrambled to get his gun and help his partner return fire against the threat on the roof.

Oswald flailed in agony on the ground for seconds that ticked away like long hours as he tried to get over on his good side to get away from where bullets we're still flying through the night air.

"Bird?" He called out when he got turned over on his side enough to see where she was curled up in a fetal position not too far away from him.

"Oswald…" She strained to say upon hearing him calling out for her.  
Pulling her hands away from her side she could see they were both covered in her own blood.

Her breathing rushed violently in and out of her lungs; sweat was already dripping down her face, but somehow she managed to raise up enough to crawl over to where he was laying.

Her eyes widened as she saw the fresh streams of blood running like water from between the fingers of the hand he was holding onto his shoulder with.

"You're hurt…" She cried out between her pained shallowed breaths.

She knew she'd been injured, but it wasn't until she saw him bleeding that she realized she hadn't been quick enough to get either of them out of danger in time.

And on the way to the ground a bullet had ripped through her side and into Oswald's shoulder.

"Bird..." His voice trembled as he saw the blood dripping from her nearly saturated shirt and onto the ground beneath her and his eyes overflowed with tears –no longer solely from the physical pain his body was in.

It was as if his acknowledgment of her severe gunshot wound injury caused her to be hyperaware of how much pain she was in and how much blood she'd already lost.

She crumbled further down from where she'd been struggling to kneel and his entire face twisted up with pain when her shallowing breathing started to turn into fits and gasps for oxygen.

He held his shaky hands out in her direction, but his movements were aimless.  
He had no idea what to do –or even if there was anything he could do to help her now.

His mouth hung open as he frantically looked from Bird's wounded and weakened state over to where Jim was returning fire with the shooter on the roof and then back to his best friend with his expression growing more hopeless by second.

"You…" Bird hissed out, her forehead lined with pain, "You have to go."  
Pointing with a crimson stained finger over to the still open door of the limousine, Bird repeated, "Go."

"No… no…" He argued with a frantic shake before he reached out and grasped onto her hand; not willing to leave her in the condition she was in and she didn't look capable of making it to the car.

"I can't-" He hoarsely choked out, "Bird, I would die a hundred lifetimes at your side rather than live a single one without you in it."

"No." She argued right back as she pulled her hand from his grip and reached up to take hold of his tie, where she nearly cut off his air supply when she jerked his face closer to hers and grimaced, "Oswald, go."

Her head weakly fell forward until her forehead collided with his as she promised, "You're going to survive. You always do."

"No…" He struggled to breathe as she still had a tight grip on his tie, but Bird dismissed his refusal and reminded him, "Galavan has to die. You go… and you… you make him pay for everything he's done."

With that she let go of his tie and sank back against the pavement as she ordered, "Go!"

"I will. I will make him pay." He promised through gritted as he looked from where she was lying to where it was just a short distance to the open driver's side door of the car.

Maybe if he, himself, wasn't injured then he could have dragged her over to the car and gotten them both out of there.  
But he barely had any moment in his injured arm and he knew that wasn't option.

He hesitated for another second before crawled over and got into the car, sending up a thank you when he found the keys in the ignition.

Bringing the engine to life, he sped away from the scene as fast as the tires would take him.

It wouldn't be tonight, but Galavan was going to pay. He was going to die and Oswald was going to follow on through on what he'd promised Bird even if it was his last act on earth.

"Jim!" Bullock yelled when he saw the limo speed off and he fired some shots at the car to try and stop it, but Oswald escaped.

Jim had heard the engine and the car speed away, but he couldn't be concerned with anyone's escape, not when there could still be danger lurking from above.

His eyes scanned the roof, but whoever had been shooting at them was long gone and back up was starting to swarm the grounds and the roof.

" _Bird! Hey, hey with me? You gotta stay awake."_

Jim stood from where he'd taken cover behind the patrol car when he heard Bullock's voice and even though he understood every word, it took him an unusually long amount of time to fully comprehend what was happening.

"Hey!" Bullock yelled out to anyone who was nearby, "We need a bus, now! She's been hit!"  
His pleas for someone to call an ambulance were quickly answered as one of the uniformed officers nearly knocked Jim down in his mad dash to get to the radio inside the patrol car and radio for help.

Jim's eyes fluttered to a close as he neared where his partner was knelt down over Bird, who lay wounded and bloody on the ground.

"She's lost a lot of blood." Bullock spoke quietly as Jim finally reached them.  
He looked down to where he was still firmly pressing his jacket to the gunshot wound on the young woman's side in an attempt to slow the bleeding.

Jim stood in place above them, swallowing hard as he saw how pasty her sweat slicked skin looked in the streetlights.

Her breathing was rapid, still coming out in shallow gasps as if she just couldn't get the oxygen to where it needed to go and the fabric of her dress was saturated in blood.

He had no idea if it had been an in and out shot or if the bullet was still inside of her; no way of knowing if any vital organs had been hit.

All he knew was that he'd let her down in far more ways than one and the guilt was swallowing him up in a black hole of emptiness.

Bird's hair was damp and messily stuck to her face while she laid on her back staring up to the sky.  
In contrast from her hurried breathing, her eyes remained open and only slowly blinking every once in a while with a glassy look taking over her brown hues.

She blinked again, only this time her eyes didn't reopen and Jim's heart fell when he saw her head starting to limply roll to the one side.

"Bird!" Jim yelled dropping down beside where Bullock was keeping pressure on the injury, "Open your eyes. Stay awake. Help is on the way, okay? You have to hold on…"

Jim's voice trailed off as Bird opened her eyes and looked right at him; with a helpless look that practically asked what exactly she was supposed to hold onto.

"Detective Gordon-" Theo Galavan said as he walked up onto the scene and came to stop just steps away.

"Back up." Bullock ordered and made sure Jim had ahold of the jacket to slow the bleeding like he was doing, before he pulled himself up to his feet with a tired groan said, "We need to get you back inside."

He knew just as well as Jim did that Galavan was guilty of more crimes than he could probably even begin to rattle off at that moment, but they didn't have proof.

All they had was the words of confessed criminals and by the looks of it he wasn't sure Bird was going to be around to give them anymore information she had.

Bullock gave one last look to where Jim and Bird were before he grabbed onto Galavan's arm and led him back towards the building.

"You have to hold on." Jim repeated, his eyes darting across her face and down to where he was now responsible for slowing the bleeding.

"It's -it's okay." Bird coughed with an agonized expression on her face as she stared up to him with tears running from the outer corners of her eyes and into her hairline.

Adjusting on the ground, Jim gently lifted her upper body enough to rest against him so that her head wasn't against the hard rock coated pavement.

"You can't save everyone, Jim." She panted out, finding it harder to breath with every passing second as her own sweat was stinging her eyes.

Jim could hear sirens in the near distance and he pleaded, "Stay with me. The ambulance is almost here. You have to stay-"

His unsteady voice and even shakier words halted when her frantic gasps for air rattled through her chest and sent her into another coughing spell, only this time when she opened her mouth to gasp for another breath he could see her teeth were starting to stain from blood that was also spreading out onto her quivering lips.

"No!" Jim's voice raised as he frantically looked out towards the direction of the road in search of the ambulance and then back to her face as he stammered, "You're-you're going to be fine. You…"  
His eyes started to burn and his voice grew thick with emotion, "I'm sorry. I should have believed you, I should have-"

"It's okay." Bird's airy tone and choppy voice that rattled out of her proved the exact opposite of what she was saying.

 _It wasn't okay._

 **She wasn't okay.**

"He…" Bird struggled to try and move, but she was too weak and all Jim could do was helplessly stare down to where she was now cradled in his arms as she tried to speak, "Oswald –he, he got away and the –the bad guy… the bad guy didn't win. It's-it's okay."

"Bird!" He yelled when she blinked once more before her glassy eyes closed again and she could no longer hear his pleas for her to come back to him.

She wasn't responding at all, aside from her continually hastened intake of air, by the time the ambulance arrived and the paramedics pushed him back to give them room to try and stabilize her while getting her loaded up on the gurney bound for Gotham General.

•••

Jim raised his head and looked across the small waiting room to where Bruce was sitting with his head in his hands and Alfred was standing with his back to the wall wearing a devastated expression of his own.

They were waiting for word on Bird's condition.

His entire body was wired from anticipation –needing to know if she was going to be okay, but he had to keep reminding himself that the more time that passed the better.

It meant they still had a living person they were trying to save.

Every single time he closed his eyes, all he could see was the glassy look Bird had in her eyes while her life started to slow to an end.

His breath rushed out of his lungs with the force of a sledgehammer against his chest when he looked down to the red blood stains on his clothes from where he'd been holding her.

Slamming his eyes shut, they popped up just as quickly when he flashed back to first walking upon where Bullock was trying to slow her bleeding and Bird barely looked alive.

" _You can't save everyone, Jim."_

The words she'd spoke rattled around in his skull.  
Her voice hadn't stopped haunting him and only served to further remind him how he'd let her down.

The gory scenes when he shut his eyes were more than he could bear, but what he saw when he looked around the room wasn't much better.

Every so often Bruce would look across the room and he didn't even have to speak for the detective to know exactly what he was thinking.

Silently questioning how something like this could have happened with the police right there.  
It was his job to save people, to keep the citizens of the city safe from harm –and yet he couldn't even protect someone who meant more to him than he'd admitted.

He watched as the youngest Wayne swatted a tear from his reddened cheeks and lowered his head back down.

Perhaps, Jim considered, maybe he'd only been mirroring back the blame he'd placed on his own shoulders in the young teens eyes.

He felt like Bruce blamed him, but in all actuality he blamed himself.

Bruce stared down to the contrast of his dark brown shoes against the blinding hospital white speckled linoleum of the floor.

The last time he was here was when Reggie had stabbed Alfred and they'd almost lost him.

His empty stomach twisted up from the dense chemical stench in the air.

 _Hate._  
 _He hated hospitals._  
 _Hated every single thing about them._

When he felt a tear fall from his eye and splash down on the floor, he rubbed his face with his hands.

How could he have left things with her the way he did?  
The last time he'd spoke to her it had ended in a fight with him going outside to call Alfred for a ride because he couldn't even stand to be in the room with her.

He'd lost his parents over a year ago and now all he could think was that he should have known better than to ever part ways with someone he loved on a bad note.

Bruce knew better than anyone just how swift and violent someone could be ripped from the world.

One minute his parents had been laughing and smiling and the next they were lying dead in an ally.  
He'd never knew life could be so horribly cruel until that moment and now he felt like he was reliving it over and over again.

At least they knew how much he loved him.  
He'd never fought much with his parents and just before they'd died they'd enjoyed a show at the theater together and while he still hadn't forgiven himself for letting that night paralyze him and not doing anything to help save them –there was a small ounce of solace that came in knowing that at least they'd left this world knowing he loved them and that they loved him.

Only now, all he could think was of the judgmental things he'd said to his sister before they last parted and how he'd been so quick to anger and take the moral high ground without ever listening to what she'd said or even trying to see her side of it.

She had to come out of this alive, he thought to himself, she just had to.  
What world could possibly be so cruel to take both his parents and then his older sister away from him in a time span of just a few short years?

Jim looked back up to Alfred who had moved from where he'd been standing against the wall to the seat beside Bruce, but only remained sitting for a few minutes before he was back on his feet.

It was impossible for him to sit still.  
He wanted to do something, but there wasn't anything he could do for anyone at all –aside from try to reassure Bruce that his sister as strong and would pull through this.

Only Alfred was trying to tread carefully in that water –knowing that there was a very real possibility that Bird wouldn't walk away from the injuries she'd sustained that night.

It wasn't so long ago that Bird was telling him how she was beginning to understand what her father meant in the letters he'd left behind for her and her brother, where he spoke of feeling mortal.

Perhaps Bird had been right all along and he'd too easily dismissed her concerns.

After all, it was just the prior year that she'd left him with instructions on what to do if she were to be killed and luckily nothing too severe had come from the situation that had left her fearing for her life back then –so why should he have given much credit to her when she started speaking of a future without herself in it this time around?

A pit opened up in the core of his stomach and Alfred just barely landed on the edge of the chair when he could no longer stand when it fully sunk in that he might be burying the young woman he'd watched grow up from a very young child.

Bird was more than just the child of the family he'd worked for -for over a decade –she was family.

As far down as he tried to push the thoughts of what would happen next if they were lose her, the macabre thoughts wouldn't let him have a moment's peace.  
He would be the one making arrangements.

And even though he knew all of the paperwork was back at Wayne Manor; he found himself trying desperately to remember if she'd told him she wanted to be cremated or buried.

It was senseless, he tried to tell himself, it was entirely irrational to be concerned with such matters while Lady Wayne was still among the living and would surely remain that way.  
She had to survive this, just as she'd survived every other hardship and tragedy in her life.

Finding his own legs growing restless as he stared a hole through the clock on the wall, Jim rubbed his hands over the top of his legs and stood up, he was just about to ask if anyone wanted something from the vending machines with the double doors opened and the doctor walked out –wearing an expression that didn't seem to bode well for their situation.

Jim stood by the chair he'd been sitting in for what felt like years as the doctor spoke with Bruce and Alfred and he didn't need to be in earshot of them to know Bird's fate.

Bruce quickly turned away from the doctor fell against Alfred with tears streaming down his face while Alfred clutched onto him with a broken look of his own at a complete loss of what to say or do.

There was nothing in the world he could say that would make the situation any less catastrophic for the teenager who'd already lost too much too soon.

Jim rubbed a hand over his own mouth and stared at them with the feeling of someone holding a lighter to his own eyes.

Maybe if he'd done something sooner then he could have changed the course they'd all been on.  
If he'd listened to her when she'd told them Galavan was behind everything, or if he'd pushed her harder in the weeks leading up to it…

Bird was gone –and he now had to live knowing that while he'd stood guard and protected Galavan, Bird had taken a bullet for her friend and paid the ultimate price.

He'd failed nearly everyone who mattered to him and it wasn't long until the grief shifted into a red hot anger bubbling up inside of him.

Turning his back to where Alfred was still holding Bruce as they mourned the loss of a family member, Jim rested his hands on the tall counter of the reception desk.

He couldn't even hear the nurse sitting at the desk on her computer asking if he was okay when she observed his labored breathing.

He couldn't hear anything at all.

In an otherwise silent outburst, Jim angrily threw him arm out across the counter and knocked down the decorative vase and hard plastic displays of various medical information pamphlets.

It was then that he felt a hand on his shoulder and spun around to see Lee looking at him with a concerned expression.

She looked over to where Bruce was now sitting down in a chair with tears streaming down his face, but no audible sounds could be heard.  
The pain he felt ran so deep that he could barely even breathe.

Every loss he'd suffered punched another hole in his life, his happiness, his soul.  
Gaping black voids that would never be completely sealed up.

His memories of his parents and now of his sister, of happier times when their family was whole –were hardening up like scar tissue inside of him.

"Jim…" Lee quietly said as she grabbed onto his hand and gently pulled him towards the other side of the waiting room to give Bird's family some space.

Once she had him alone, she handed him the envelope containing the results from the blood test she'd done on Bird's request.  
She'd been right. There were traces of varying hallucinogenic drugs her system.

Jim's already sullen expression fell ever further as he looked back Lee and then over to where Bruce and Alfred were, knowing what he had to do now.

 _He had to tell them._  
Tell them that Bird could only be held so accountable for way she'd been acting.  
That she was truly in war against immeasurable outside sources all while fighting another one inside of her own head.

He had to look Bruce in the eyes and accept blame for his fault and the part he'd played in Bird's final days.  
Had he done a better job and been a better friend then she'd still be here.

He needed to tell him that Bird had given her life in an attempt to save someone very important to her and that in the end she believed she'd done the right thing.

Jim had seen it in her eyes while she lay bleeding out on the ground, trying to assure him that it was okay, that Oswald got away and the bad guy didn't win.

He'd spent so long criticizing her life choices and the people she aligned herself with –that he hadn't been able to see that she fully believed she'd been doing the right thing all along.

Bird knew she wasn't perfect and she'd never claimed to be, but she hadn't viewed herself or her best friend as the villains in the story and in the end she'd shown more loyalty and bravery in her short life than most people could possess in several lifetimes.

The doctor let out a heavy sigh and leaned against the wall just on the inside of the large doors that had shut behind him.

Having to deliver news like that to loved ones was one of the worst parts of the job and something he'd never gotten used to in all his years of practicing medicine.

His own footsteps sounded unusually heavy to his ears with every step against the floor as he made his way down the hallway.

It had taken some convincing from both his self and the family's butler, but they'd been able to persuade Bruce Wayne against his request to see his sister one last time.

Walking back into the after surgery recovery room, the doctor looked up to all the machines tasked with monitoring signs of life and then down to the young woman's body in the bed.

"When will she be stable enough to be moved?"

The doctor looked across the bed to where Carmine Falcone was standing.

"It's a miracle she made it off the operating room table." The doctor said, "It's still my professional opinion to advise against moving her in this state."

Falcone looked at the screen showing Bird's steady heartbeat before he reasoned, "She's not safe here. My people are getting a place set up for to continue her recovery as we speak. She'll be better off-"

"With everyone believing she's dead?" The doctor questioned, before admitting in the most respectful tone as possible, "The people I just lied to out in the waiting room… they're devastated-"

"This isn't about them." Falcone cut him off, "Her mother made a decision shortly after she was born that decided her life for her. But now, these circumstances… no matter how unfortunate present a choice that she didn't get before. When she wakes up, she can start over fresh somewhere away from the city that has brought her nothing but pain."

" _If_." The doctor cleared his throat, " _If_ she wakes up."

"She will." Falcone nodded, his eyes traveling back to the screen reading her heart-rate, "She's strong because she has to be. She's a Falcone, after all; it's my blood that runs through her veins."

 **•••**

* * *

 **A/N - I know it's been a while since my last update. August was a really terrible month for me and my family and as of now I'm still really struggling with trying to get back into the swing of things and put myself back together.  
**

 **I want to specially thank chodofaggins, Kakkorat is Cake, Rasiel Hasu, Shadow knight1121, Love. Fiction. 2017, Amelia, Melody Jane, xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, DancingDorisDay, MzzLightwood, Katniss789, Guest and SmellYourScentForMiles for reviewing the last chapter.  
** ** **I hope you all liked the chapter. Thank you for reading and sticking with me and I can't wait to hear your thoughts on this chapter.  
****


	17. Cartilage

**XVII**

 _At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst. -Aristotle_

* * *

•••

Bird sat up with a slight struggle on the side of her bed with squinted eyes as she clutched onto her side and struggled for a breath through the intense pain she was feeling all over her body.  
It felt her someone was trying to dig their way out of her head from the inside out with an ice pick.

Her bare feet touched the wooden floor and though it took a fair amount of struggling she managed to get herself stood up.

It was only then that she realized exactly where she was.  
She was in her room at Wayne Manor.

The confused expression on her face grew as her wandering gaze stopped on the sight of an empty fish take on the top of her dresser where she once had a pet fish.  
The first and last pet her parents had ever let her have –she'd accidentally killed it when she'd poured glitter into the water to make the tank prettier.

Bird couldn't remember what happened to the tank; whether it was put into storage in the basement or if they'd thrown it away, but it had been years since she'd seen or even thought of it.

Her usually sure footing fumbled from beneath her as she tried to leave her room and had to grip onto the open door frame to keep from falling over.

Once she was out in the hallway it was quickly becoming more apparent that something was wrong with her. Her eyesight was fuzzy around the edges and completely black in her peripheral.

The pain in her side was so intense that she could barely even walk.

Perhaps most unsettling of all was that she couldn't remember how she'd even gotten there.  
She couldn't remember much of anything, but with the way her head was currently feeling as though it was in a vice grip, she figured she must have the spent the prior night drinking and was having the worst hangover on earth.

Coming to a stop at the top of the stairs she lifted her shirt to look at her side where the pain was intensely radiating from, but there didn't appear to be a visible injury.

Maybe she'd fell on something when she was drunk?

Letting her shirt fall back down, she tightly clung to the railing and lowered herself cautiously from step to step until she made it to the first floor.

"Bruce?" Bird yelled out, her words turning to coughing and sputtering before she managed to choke out, "Alfred?"

Groaning she leaned against the wall and pinned her eyes shut, sweat beaded across her forehead and the pain from her side nearly crippled her.

"Hello?" She cried out, doing her best to keep herself standing though she wasn't sure how long she'd be able to.

She'd never been one for hospitals, but with as bad as she was hurting she knew something had to be wrong.

As the current wave of pain faded and she was finally able to take a breath of reprieve and she utilized the chance to go towards the door.  
She needed to get out of that house and go to the hospital or call someone for help, she wasn't sure where exactly she was headed –but she had an overwhelming feeling that she couldn't stay in that house for a second longer.

"Hello…" Bird repeated as she came to a stop when she saw the front door was standing wide open; only instead of the usual view –anything and everything beyond the door frame was obstructed by a blinding light.

Her gazed was pulled down to where her hands were trembling down at her sides.  
All she wanted to do was turn and run back in the other direction; take shelter in her old room and wait until someone showed up to tell her what was going on.

But she couldn't.

Even though the fear coursing through her veins was nearly paralyzing, she had to get out of that house and she didn't know if she could make it to another door.

Slowly, she advanced forward, calling out again to see if someone was there but no one answered her.

The closer she got to the door filled with white light, the less her side hurt.  
Her breathing was starting to return to normal and she was able to stand up straighter.

Maybe she was going to be okay.  
 _If she could just get out of the house then things would be okay._

Bird came to an abrupt stop and spun around when she heard someone crying –quickly coming to the realization that it was Bruce's cries echoing throughout the house.  
With furrowed brows she wondered why he'd have ignored her when she yelled his name –maybe they were in a fight she couldn't remember, or he had been out of ear shot.

With every step she took in the opposite direction of the front door that had felt so inviting caused the pain to flare back up in her side, but she couldn't stop.

She didn't know what was wrong with her, but she was hurt and maybe her brother was hurt too. If that was the case she had to find him and get them both out the house to safety.

Tears stung her eyes as she passed by the staircase and yelled out her brothers name.  
Bird slowed to a stop when she rounded the corner of a hallway and saw a large painting on the wall that she couldn't remember having ever seen before.

Dark crimsons and ethereal browns sprawled messily across the canvas with designs of shadowed black thorn covered vines.

The searing pain flared up in her side again and she was brought down to her knees from the jolt. Her panic only grew when the entire mansion started to shake and rumble.

She opened her mouth to scream out for her brother again, but her voice came out muffled as something covered her mouth and when she looked up she saw the vines were creeping down the wall from the painting and steadily wrapping around her.

Her legs were completely bound and buried under the vines that just kept wrapping around her over and over again –trying to bury her from head-to-toe until there would surely be nothing left.

She was sure her ribs were cracking from the pressure and her ability to pull in any sort of air had been brought to a stop.

Somehow she managed to free one of her arms from the entangling darkness and waved it around frantically, trying desperately to grip onto anything she could use to start to pull herself to freedom.

Just when all hope had started to fade and she felt herself beginning to drift into a suffocating state of nothingness, her hand found something to hold onto –more so, she felt someone else grip onto her hand with an iron tight grasp.

As quickly as the vines had started to swallow her up and leave her body feeling broken and weighed down, they started to retract and climb back up the wall until they were all back in the painting and Bird was left on the hardwood floor, down on all fours violently coughing and trying to catch her breath.

A warm hand landed on her back and gently rubbed in circles until she was able to catch her breath and muster the strength to up and see who'd saved her from a certain death.

"Dad…" She breathed.

"Come on." Thomas Wayne smiled as he extended a hand and promised, "It's okay. You're going to be fine."

With a nearly dazed expression, Bird accepted his help and he pulled her up to her feet, wrapped an arm around her shoulders and led her towards the set of patio doors to get outside.

Bird kept staring at him while she allowed him to lead her out of the house –never noticing how just inches behind their footsteps a thick darkness was swallowing up the house and seeming to gain on them with every step until they reached the doors and went outside.

Once they were outside, he led her over to a bench and helped her get sat down before he took a seat beside her and let out a heavy breath.

"What's going on?" Bird questioned, her eyes never left his face. It was as if she were afraid if she looked away that he'd disappear.

"Try to remember." He answered with a sad smile on his lips, "You have to remember."

"I…" Bird breathed, shaking her head, "Galavan."  
The name left her lips as her face twisted up in rage and she hissed, "He was drugging me. The hallucinations…"

Tears welled up in her eyes as she stared at her father and whispered, "None of this is real."

Finally bringing herself to look around, she spotted her mother sitting out on a blanket with a picnic basket beside her and a book in her hands.

Usually her hallucinations were horrific, filled with demons and her worst fears.  
Yet, somehow this felt more painful.

It hurt worse to see something that she'd taken for granted so many times when she was growing up.  
To feel like she was truly in the presence of her deceased parents and know it wasn't real.

"You're certain?" Thomas asked his daughter, watching her closely as she looked all around the side yard outside of the house she'd grown up in.

"You're not real." She repeated, grabbing onto the side of her head and getting back up tp her feet.

But before she could walk away he stopped her and warned, "You can't go back in there."

Jerking away from his touch she recoiled with her arms crossed over her chest and her chin quivering as she frantically looked away trying to see what nightmare was going to creep up on her next.

Thomas' eyes kept cutting over towards the house where he could clearly see all of the windows were entirely blacked out from the darkness that had swelled up inside to fill every single inch of space.

He held his arms up trying not to startle her as he said, "If this isn't real… then where's the harm in just sitting here with me?"

"Because I've probably got about two seconds until your face melts off and gets all demonic looking." She answered honestly.

Her words earned a small smile from him and he thought of how he'd learned a long time ago to not ask questions unless he wanted a brutally honest answer from her.

"I know you were never too keen on taking my advice, but you can't go back in there. I'm afraid I won't be able to reach you again."

Bird's eyebrows furrowed and she whipped her head back to look at him, "What are you talking about? What's in there?"

A somber expression fell over his face and she saw his jaw tense as if her wanted to give her answer but was unable to speak it.

"Dad?" Bird's voice shook as she staggered forward, "What's in the house?"

"You have to remember." Was all he could say, "Remember."

"I did-" Her argument was cut short when she became painfully aware of the sharp jolts of pain from her side.  
Looking down, her mouth hung open when she saw she was now wearing a long dress that was stained red from blood.

Pulling apart the shredded fabric on her side, she saw a bullet hole in her skin and nearly lost her balance as everything came flooding back.

Just as quickly as her legs gave out, her father was there to catch her and led her back over the bench they'd been sitting on.

Maybe this wasn't a hallucination after all.  
Maybe the light out of the front door of the house she wanted to go to was really something calling her from the living world –maybe the vines she'd nearly been swallowed in were trying to drag her somewhere else.

"I'm dead." She finally said it out loud.

"No." Thomas shook his head, "Not exactly."

"Not exactly?" Bird repeated back to him with an expectant look, but he didn't offer up any more information.

Still not entirely sure if anything was real or if she was simply still under the effects of hallucinogenic drugs, Bird guessed again, "Am I going to die?"

Reaching out he gently cupped her cheek in his hand, catching her off guard by how warm and real his skin felt to hers when she was still half sure he wasn't real.

"You could have." Thomas finally said as he glanced back towards the house before pointing out, "You were fighting for your life –you still are."

Bird thought back to how as she neared the front door of the house the searing pain in her side had dulled with every step closer to the radiating white light she'd witnessed.

"What if…" She cleared her throat, "What if I don't want to fight anymore?"

"Don't say that-" He started to argue, but she cut him off.  
Even in death she still didn't seem ready to head his advice.

"I jumped in the way of a bullet headed towards my best friend." She remembered, "Dying for someone I love? Come on, Dad. That's about the closest thing to a heroic ending someone like me can hope for."

"When you're willing to take a bullet just to say you died for something –that's proof you were living for nothing, Starling." Thomas sternly said.

Bird's eyes met her dads and deep down she knew he was right.

Which really came as no surprise, he always was and it was apparently a trait that even her hallucination of him carried to a fault.

"You've found things to die for." He continued to speak, "But I think it's past time you find things that are worth living for, don't you?"

"Like what?" Bird's arm fell weakly at her sides and her shoulders slouched.

"I can't answer that." There was a smile on his lips when he spoke, "Those are the answers you have to seek out for yourself."

"My entire life imploded." Bird stammered, "I got out of my life of crime and I thought I'd found the right person to spend the rest of my life with. I was doing the things that everyone wanted me to do and it didn't matter-"

"I'm sorry." He earnestly interrupted her, "My daughter, I am so sorry for all you've lost and had to endure. You'd think after all of this that I've have some sage advice to pass on –something to say that would explain why the universe worked against you in ways that we can't begin to understand, but…"

Stepping closer, he rested his hands on her shoulders and fought to smile, "That's life. Sometimes you can do everything in your power and still lose. It's not right and it sure as hell isn't fair, but it is what it is and sometimes all you can do is pick yourself back up and try again. Maybe certain things fell apart so greater things could fall into place."

He watched as her face scrunched up into an expression he knew all too well –she was gearing up for an argument.

And as much as he'd come to dread fighting with her, he'd have willingly stayed around and argued with her for days on end just to see her for a moment longer, but the sun in the sky was getting brighter. Turning from a yellow light into a blinding white ball and the sands of time wouldn't stop for anyone –not even a Wayne.

"We don't have much time. So please, for once in your life just listen to me." He pleaded as he took her face in his hands and made sure her full attention was focused on him before continuing, "You can't live your life breaking yourself apart for everyone around you. You have to live for yourself –when your time really does come, it will come for you alone ."

His eyes burned as he watched the tears starting to run down her cheeks.

He cleared his throat and started to squint in the bright light beginning to surround them, "You have to accept who you are… hold onto that. Even on the darkest nights, the times when you feel painfully alone –you have to hold onto who you are, you've spent enough time lost."

"I love you." Thomas finished as he leaned down and pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

Bird's eyes pinned shut, though it did little to stop the tears from running down her cheeks.

••• **weeks later •••**

Carmine Falcone came to a stop outside of the room Bird had been staying in since she'd began her recovery from the wound that had nearly killed her.

Raising his hand, he knocked on the open door frame, but let out a sigh when he spotted her across the room doing pull-ups by gripping onto the door frame above the bathroom door.

When it was clear she had no idea he was there, Falcone walked in further and switched off the power on the stereo she'd had music blaring from.

Letting go of the frame she landed on her feet and questioned, "Was the music too loud?" As she turned around to face him.

"What are you doing?" He sighed, his eyes following her as she crossed the room and picked a towel up from the top of her dresser to dry sweat dampened face on.

"I'm weak." She complained, "I'm weak as hell."

"You almost died." He reminded her in a stern voice, "Your doctor says you need to be taking it easy. You're on a long road of recovery here… pushing yourself past your limits will do more harm than good."

"What are you training for anyways?" He pushed, pausing for a breath before asking, "Remember the offer I made you?"

"Yeah." She nodded, "Leave everything and everyone I know behind."

"You're dead." Falcone said while he stepped further into the room, "Your friends… your enemies –every single person in Gotham thinks you're dead. There will never be a more perfect situation to leave the city and all of the pain it caused you behind."

Bird broke eye contact and looked down to the floor.

She couldn't deny how appealing it sounded. After all, he was right.

Everyone believed she was dead. She'd seen pictures of the grand turnout of her funeral service on the front page of the Gotham Gazette.

In the time that had passed since the night she'd been shot and everyone thought she'd died, she was sure that her brother was probably already dealing with the loss and trying to move on from it.

In many ways she'd done the best she could to be the sister to him that he deserved. She'd watched out for him and always had his best interest in mind –even when he was morally opposed to her methods.

It was a struggle to not fall prey to the voices in the back of her mind that were constantly reminding her of how she seemed to carry the effect of poison into the lives of everyone she cared about.

Maybe everyone was really better off with her being a memory of the past.

In fact, when Falcone had first given her the offer to start over somewhere else –she nearly accepted it.

But so much had happened since she'd woke up with a tube down her throat that had been helping her breathe and the doctor hovering over her instructing her to cough as he pulled the tube out.

For the first few days she'd barely been able to get out of bed and had mainly caught glimpses of the news and had small take with Falcone before drifting back off to sleep.

Once she was finally able to stay awake for hours at a time she'd been following the news in Gotham closely.

Barbara Kean had tried to Jim and Lee –she hadn't been successful and the news reported she'd fell out of a high window and had been in a coma since. Her unconscious body was taken to the medical wing in Arkham.

GCPD had managed to find the city's missing former mayor, albeit a terrified, but a very much alive Aubrey James, who'd instantly pointed the finger at the Galavans for being his abductors and tormentors.

Falcone still had sources inside the police and they'd reported that a cult of warrior monks had descended on Gotham, calling themselves the Order of St. Dumas.

Apparently Jim had somehow gotten information out of one of the members that they were there to fulfill a prophecy about how the blood of nine would cleanse the city.  
So far GCPD had tied eight murders back to the religious cult –which meant they still needed one more.

Every day the stories on news seemed to be stranger than the day before and that made Bird more apprehensive about leaving the only city she'd ever called home behind and everyone she cared about in it.

The one bit of good news she'd learned among all of the bad was that Theo Galavan had been arrested. When Mayor James had given Galavan's name to the police it was enough to arrest him and he'd since been held in Blackgate without bail.

Victory wouldn't be felt until he was no longer walking among the living, but she could at least take a small bit of peace from knowing he was behind bars for the time being.

"Why don't you get changed for breakfast?" Falcone finally said, bringing her from her thoughts and she managed a small smile and nod in response.

Bird watched as he left her room at the estate they were staying in and then dropped down into the chair at the vanity next to her dresser.

Falcone had told her that when Lily had stolen her as a baby and fled from him –only to then leave her on the steps of a church, that she'd forever altered the course of Bird's life.  
This was his way of trying to make up for that now and let her decide her own path in a world where it seemed like every decision had been made for her.

It was nearly forty minutes later that Bird had showered and changed clothes before heading into the kitchen where she found Falcone already sitting at the table eating his breakfast and drinking his coffee.

Bird sat down at the other end of the large table and looked down to her own plate of food.  
Plucking up the blueberry muffin from the small side plate, she proceeded to pull pieces off and pop them into her mouth as she looked around the room.

There was now a comfort around her biological father that she couldn't remember ever feeling before.  
Maybe it was because of the time that had passed since she'd been working with Oswald to bring his empire down –or maybe it was that she'd been through enough now to understand that for all of his wrongs, that he truly had tried to do right by her.

Or maybe it was simply a growing bond forged out of her desperation.  
She had nothing left of her old life left.

Her apartment and car were gone, her assets would have been doled out according to the will she'd left behind.

Aside from the doctors who'd worked to save her life and Falcone's guards and henchman there at the house –no one else knew she was alive.

Taking a drink of her tea, Bird looked across the table to Falcone and was getting ready to ask him what the paper said about Galavan's trial. It had just started the day before and had been expected to carry on for possibly weeks, but she saw the picture on the front page was of Galavan smiling ear to ear on the front steps of the courthouse.

"What happened?" She gasped, getting up out of her chair and walking over to Falcone.

"Prosecution's star witness changed his story on the stand." Falcone admitted to her.  
He relayed the article he'd just read detailing how Aubrey James had testified under oath that Cobblepot had been the one who'd kidnapped him and not Galavan.

The judge then immediately tossed the case out and let Galavan go with the courts sincerest apologies.

Pulling the paper from his hands, Bird dropped down into a seat at the closet chair to read the article for herself.

"This is madness…" She breathed, quickly thumbing through the pages to get to page number where it said the article was continued.

The story reported that after the judge declared Galavan a free man -that in an outburst of anger, Jim Gordon, had lept from his seat and assaulted Theo Galavan right in the middle of the courtroom.

Her eyes widened as she sped through the rest of the piece where she learned that Jim hadn't been seen since he was escorted from the courtroom and that Captain Barnes had declared him a fugitive and had since been organizing efforts to find and bring him in.

"Something's wrong…" Bird thought out loud, "Galavan must have somehow taken Jim."

"Or…" Falcone interrupted, "He's really on the run from GCPD."

Bird bit down on the side of her tongue but didn't see a point in voicing her own argument.  
She knew Jim, she knew him better than she'd probably ever admitted out loud and something was off about this entire situation.

The dark printed words blurred against the gray paper and her breathing grew labored.

What if Galavan knew she was still alive? What if this was some ploy to draw her out?

"I have to…" Bird's voice trailed off once she looked up and saw one of Falcone's trusted mean speaking lowly to him, before glancing over at Bird and then quickly exiting the room.

"What is it?" She demanded to know as every ounce of peace she'd managed to gain over the last several weeks wilted and dropped like the petals on a dying flower.  
Piece by piece, she could feel herself starting to come undone again.

"My contact inside the GCPD." Falcone cleared his throat and took another drink of his morning coffee, "He says your butler was arrested this morning –brought into the station wounded and claiming that Theo Galavan abducted Bruce."

Falcone watched as all the concern and worry on her face transformed into a hardened expression of someone with an all bets off mission coming to life behind their eyes.

"I know that your first instinct is-"

"To save my little brother." Bird finished for him, "And kill Galavan."

"Think about this, my dear." He pleaded as he followed back towards her room, but Bird didn't even look over her shoulder as she said, "I appreciate everything that you've done for me… but I'm not about to sit idly by and let him kill Bruce."

Her loyalty was one of the traits he admired most –even if that loyalty didn't always side with him.  
But it was that very devotion she had for Oswald that had nearly gotten her killed and he was sure it ran even deeper for her brother.

"I'm not saying we let them kill him." Falcone clarified, "I'm suggesting that we get a group together –send them in to save Bruce Wayne and dispose of Galavan. You're in no condition to do this on your own."

"We?" Bird caught as she looked around the side of her closet door from where she'd thrown a pair of black pants out on her bed to change into.

"You are my daughter." He reminded her.

"I know." Bird nodded, "And I don't need anyone to fight my battles for me, not even you. I have to do this."

"The second that any of them find out you're alive… that opportunity to truly disappear; the chance to make a life entirely your own somewhere else will vanish." Falcone explained, watching as a long sleeved black shirt went flying from her closet onto the bed next to where the pants had landed.

Bird walked over to her dresser and opened the second drawer where she pulled out a loaded handgun and dropped it onto her bed.

"The last time you went up against Galavan-"

"I was nearly killed." Bird repeated his favorite phrase as of late.

"But this time it's different." She added.

Walking into the room he'd provided her with, Falcone questioned, "What makes you so sure of that this time around?"

Bird stopped gathering up the supplies and clothes she was going to wear that night and looked up at his face.

It was an honest question on his part.  
Not spoken in a condescending tone or made to cause her to feel helpless.

"Because the last time I went up against him… I expected to die. I think I wanted to die." She admitted.  
An honest question deserved nothing short of an honest reply.

Thinking back to the strange dream she'd had involving her adoptive father just before she'd woken up weeks prior, Bird added, "The way my life was…"  
With a shrug she simply added, "Living for nothing makes it easy to take a bullet as proof that you died for something."

She wasn't sure how much of her deteriorated mental state at that time could be attributed to the drugs she'd been repeatedly dosed with to make her feel like she was losing her mind or how much of it was the result of her life being completely dismantled while she stood there helplessly and watched everything she'd worked for fall apart around her.

Either way, she felt like a different person now.

Her system was clean and her mind clear.

"And what are you living for now?" He asked, his eyes narrowed inquisitively at her.

"I'm not sure." She admitted with a small smile toying at the corner of her mouth, "But I'll figure it out eventually. Someone told me that I need to find something bigger than myself –and I'm not sure if that's something I can find in Gotham or if I'll find it somewhere outside of the city. But I do know that I can't begin to fully move on from this chapter of my life as long as Galavan is still breathing the same air as the rest of us."

Falcone lingered to watch her for a few moments longer before he turned and left the room, pulling the doors shut behind him to give her privacy.

He'd hoped to convinced her to leave Gotham by now.

She was his daughter; his strong, beautiful and courageous, Carmina.  
The only one of his children to be named in his likeness.

Despite her having been raised by the Waynes for most of her life and having no knowledge of her his being her biological father until she'd entered her twenties, he could recognize so much of himself in her –both the good and the bad.

There was still so much about the family she had blood ties to that Bird didn't know yet.  
So much that he wanted to show her and family members that she'd yet to meet, but now wasn't the time.

Her heart was very much still bound to Gotham and until she tied up the loose ends she'd expressed the fear of leaving behind and many more she didn't speak of –he knew she would keep running back to where she came from.

For now, he'd have to hold out hope that she would one day be ready to learn about the family she was from and try to find a life for herself outside of the city that had brought her nothing but heartache and loss.

•••

" _Death to the son of Gotham._  
 _Death to the son of Gotham._  
 _Death to the son of Gotham."_

The combined voices of the monks from the Order of St. Dumas echoed throughout the room as they chanted the same phrase over and over again.

Bird stealthily moved behind a few of the hooded monks making a circle around where Bruce Wayne was tied to a column in the middle of the room, before she tucked herself out of sight in a small alcove in the wall.

There were far more people in the room than she'd intended on.

She'd expected to face off against Galavan and Tabitha along with probably a few of their followers –but she'd never imaged a room full of warrior monks at the ready to witness her brother's execution.

Suddenly, she found herself regretting the choice to turn down Falcone's offer of sending some of his men with her.

Pulling in a deep breath, she tried to calm herself despite the dire circumstances and formulate a new plan.

While the monks continued to chant, Theo Galavan entered the room, carefully cradling the ancient knife embellished with the Wayne family crest in his hands.

Bird's eyes darted around the room from behind open eye section in the black balaclava she was wearing to hide her identity and she watched as Theo offered the knife to Silver St. Cloud.

Bird's brows furrowed, for a moment she thought Theo was expecting Silver to step up and be the one to kill Bruce, but perhaps even more surprising were the tears that started to roll down the blonde teenager's face.

The leader of the monks, rose from the throne he'd been sitting at in the head of the room and took the knife from Galavan. The chanting and all other sounds of room cut into a deafening silence when he thrust the ancient dagger up into the air.

"Prepare yourself, boy." The head monk instructed as he walked closer to where Bruce was tied up.

Bird opened and closed her hands down at her sides, readying herself to jump in and intervene at any second.

She was still healing from the gunshot wound that had nearly claimed her life; now with a clear mind and new lease on life, the last thing she wanted was to feel that close to death again –being consumed by dark emptiness as her life faded; but she'd risk it all over again to save him.

"You're a deluded old fool…" Bruce swallowed hard as he spoke, "And you'll pay for this."

Bird slowly nodded along with her brother's words from where she was standing.

He was going to pay for this. Pay with his very life –and so would everyone else in that room.

"Ancestors, be our witness. The prophecy is fulfilled!" The monk yelled out into the room.  
He then started to raise the hand he was holding the knife in and Bird stepped out of where she'd was hiding.

But before either of them could make a move, Silver stepped forward from where she'd been standing and screamed out, "STOP!"

As the sole focus of every person in the room landed on her and her tear streaked, flushed face, her expression wavered and her trembling chin barely let her choke out, "Please?"

Pulling her gun from its holster, Bird pulled in another breath, taking advantage of the distraction Silver had pulled over the room.

With a new focus and feeling of confidence, Bird took aim and brought the monks directly in front of her down with bullets through their heads.

Having clear aim and with the way the monks were standing beside each other lined up; she'd gotten four shots off and dropped four of the monks before the room started to descend into chaos.

The doors to the room were kicked in as Bird was bringing one of the monks down to the ground and stabbing them through the heart with their own knife, Bird stole a few seconds to look in the directions of the doors.

A small smile appeared on her lips when she saw Oswald entering the room behind of a few of his armed men.

She knew he'd survived his injuries from the last night she'd seen him –she'd just known it.  
But still, seeing him in person again was a much needed moment to fully assure her that her friend was alive and well.

" **SACRILEGE!"**  
The head monk screamed out, brandishing the ancient knife through the air in front of him and signaling the rest of them to fight back; not only against Bird, but also against Oswald and his men.

The other set of double doors leading into the room was also kicked open as Jim and Alfred raced in and immediately opened fire on the hooded army that started to swarm them with battle cries on their tongues.

Bird thought she'd even caught a glimpse of Selina, before she had to focus her attention back on her own fight.

One of the hooded men, came up from behind Bird and wrapped their arms around her upper body, trying to pin her arms and bring her down. But she took advantage of their close proximity to the wall and quickly placed her boots against it as she walked her legs far enough up that she was able to push off and not only break free, but flip over him in the air.

Before he could even get turned around to see where she'd went, Bird jumped up, wrapping her legs around the man's torso and used her upper body strength to snap his neck.

Landing on the ground with the lifeless corpse, Bird started to stand back up when she spotted someone else on the floor just mere feet away from where she was.  
It was Oswald, who'd been overpowered by on the monks and when he'd been knocked down his gun had slid out of his reach.

Standing up, Bird jerked a knife out of the one the slain bodies and headed for her best friend.

In a panic and fighting for his life, Oswald used his good leg to leg to kick his approaching threat back, before scrambling to the side to try and retrieve his gun.

However, when something warm and wet sprayed across the side of his face he abruptly wiped his effected cheek and then looked down his blood stained hand with wide eyes.

For a split second he thought it might have been himself that was injured –that was until the monk's body landed on the floor and revealed the man's neck had been splayed wide open.

With a gasp, Oswald looked up to see a masked woman standing in front of him, dressed in all black with their face shielded by a mask.

His wide eyes, traveled over their body and then down to where they'd extended a hand to him –dark purple painted nails were visible from the ends of their finger-less gloves.

Slowly, he took her hand and Bird helped him get back to his feet.

Oswald's mouth hung open, unable to find or begin to form words of any kind.

Not that he was given much a chance to voice his suspicions on who his savior's identity was.

She turned to fight off another threat and he had to get to his own weapon and join back in the fight as well.

Jim looked down his bloody knuckles and then back around the room.  
Only a few of the monks were left standing now.

Bruce looked over to the detective and then over to where he saw someone in a black mask bring one of the cult members down and knock them out with a kick to the side of the head.

His fingers fumbled with the ropes binding his wrists as he tried to break free.

With a battle cry on his lips, one of the monks threw a dagger through the air right in Bruce's direction. Alfred fired a shot that brought the man down, but not before he was able to launch the knife through the air.

His eyes pinned shut as his head involuntarily jerked to the side in an attempt to avoid the knife that was flying through the air at him.

Bird had just enough time to jump in the way and place herself in front of where her brother was still tied to the wooden pole.

With her lightening fast reflexes, she brought her arms up and clasped her hands on each flat side of the blade –stopping it with the blade tip just centimeters from the center of her face.

With her breath rapidly rushing in and our of her lungs and legs trembling from beneath her, she stayed in that same position for the next several seconds –her eyes focused in on the sharp blade still clasped between her palms.

"Whoa…"  
She could hear Selina quietly say from where she was standing.

"Drop the knife, old man. It's over." Jim ordered to the very last of the monks still standing.

The cult leader who was still holding the Wayne family crest stamped knife.

"So it would seem." The monk agreed, before screaming out as he lept up into the air and seemed to nearly be flying towards where Bird was still standing protectively in front of Bruce.

Several gunshots rang out and brought the monk to a bloody crash on the floor.

Bullock lowered his gun and leaned against the door frame as he fought for his breath.  
He may have arrived several minutes after everyone else, but it seemed he showed up in the nick of time.

"That was a lot of stairs." Bullock breathlessly answered to all the sets of eyes that had turned to greet him.

Bruce finally exhaled the breath he'd been clinging to and looked back to see who'd literally just jumped in front of a knife for him, but they were gone.

Straining against the rope bindings, his eyes searched the entire room, but aside from the dead or unconscious cult members –the only other people left were Alfred, Jim, Bullock and Selina.

"Where…" He breathed, "Where did she go?"

"Are you alright?" Alfred breathed out as he rushed to Bruce and cupped his face in his hands.

Selina sprung into action and quickly got the ropes cut from his hands.

"The one who caught the knife…" Bruce stammered, "Where… where did she go?"

"I haven't the slightest..." Alfred answered, arms at the ready to catch Master Bruce as he slumped forward once his restraints were gone, "Are you alright?" He repeated.

Unable to speak anymore, Bruce managed a weak nod with tear filled eyes as he clutched onto Alfred who wrapped him in a warm embrace that served as even more proof that he was safe again.

•••

Once she knew her brother would be safe, Bird followed through the doorway she'd watched the Galavans disappear through when the room was raided.

She followed the sounds of voices down a hallway and stopped just outside of the entrance to a room that she could hear Silver's continued cries echoing out of.

"There's only one way out now." Galavan said as he opened a trap door on the wall and revealed a set of parachuting packs, "Out of the window and straight down."

"But there's only two of them." Tabitha noticed as she started to pull on the pack he'd handed to her.

"Oh, yeah…" Theo said as he let the other pack fall to the floor and started towards his young niece, "Silver isn't coming. I just wanted to take a moment, sweetheart, to express my deep disappointment in you."

"Theo, leave her be." Tabitha ordered, but Theo wasn't listening to anyone anymore.

"Silence!" He screamed at her, causing Silver to jump and cry harder with her entire body trembling in fear.

But the young blonde didn't back away when her uncle started towards her with hands out stretched towards her throat.

Using the gun in her hand, Tabitha hit her brother in the back of the head and brought him down.

Bird's eyes widened and she couldn't help but find a sense of poetic justice in it all now as she watched Tabitha help Silver pull on the other parachute pack, while Theo lay on the floor.

The same man who'd used family as a means to subdue and threaten Oswald into to working for him –was now being left for behind; left for dead by his own family.

Bird looked down to the knife clutched in her hand and then back around the corner of the doorway into the room.

Sure, she could charge in there and bring them down.  
But Tabitha seemed to be doing most of the work for her.

So, instead, Bird stood in place and watched as Theo struggled to sit up and seemed genuinely confused as he watched his sister help their niece with the straps of the parachute.

"What are you doing?" He hazily questioned.

"I don't even know who you are anymore." Tabitha spat in his direction.

This man wasn't her brother. The Order of St. Dumas had taken the brother she'd grown up with and twisted him up into a man she didn't recognize any longer –and she was done taking orders.  
Finished with trying to watch out for him when all he cared about was himself.

"Please." He complained with a roll of the eyes as she raised up further, "That is such a ridiculous cliché-"

His complaints were cut short when Tabitha kicked him in the side of the head and knocked him back to the floor.

"Forget it, brother." She hissed as she leaned over him, "You lost! It's time for me to look out for number one."

With that she turned and pushed Silver out of the window, where the teenager screamed until she managed to locate the pull plug for the parachute and save herself during the free-fall from the penthouse window.

Bird stepped out of sight from the doorway and Tabitha stopped when she spotted her.

The pair stared at each other for several fleeting seconds and even though she was still keeping her face concealed, Bird had a feeling that Tabitha knew exactly who she was.

Adjusting the shoulders straps of the parachute pack, Tabitha pulled her eyes away from Bird and gave once last glance to her brother before she seized her opportunity to escape and climbed up on the windows ledge.

Struggling to get to his feet, Theo's shoes squeaked against the floor in his scramble to make it to the window, but his sister had already jumped from the ledge by the time he made it there.

"Tabitha!" He shouted out into the night air; watching with a helpless expression as he saw the two parachutes open several stories below and knew he was trapped.

Reaching out and pulling the windows shut, he staggered away from them while his fuzzy head tried to come up with a new escape plan.

With a cry of pain, his knees nearly buckled when a knife was plunged into his back.

The second the blade was ripped back out of his skin, he was away of the sickening feeling of his own blood started to saturate his clothes.

Just as he spun around to see who'd sneaked up on him, his legs were kicked out from under him and he was brought down to the floor so fast that it took a few seconds of staring at the ceiling before he'd realized what happened.

"Tabitha…" Bird tauntingly echoed out from behind her mask. Mimicking the panicked way in which he'd yelled out for his sister just moments before.

"What…" Theo groaned out with his head still pounding from where he'd been hit and then kicked. He was having trouble focusing on his surroundings.

"Pathetic." Bird continued to taunt as she looked down to where he lay, "You're pathetic. You're nothing."

He tried to get up, but Bird stopped him with a boot to the center of his chest that left him gasping for air as she applied pressure.

She held her stance until he stopped fighting back.  
Then she dropped to the floor on top of him, straddling him so he couldn't move or try to get up.

Leaning forward, her face was just inches above him as she slowly pushed the already crimson stained blade into his side.

He cried out in pain and for the first time since she'd met him, she could see real fear in his eyes.

Her lips curved into a smile behind her mask as she watched his agonized expression twist up eve tighter when she buried the blade deeper in his skin.

"Your own family –your sister abandoned you." Bird whispered as she started to turn the knife inside the wound.  
He squirmed and tried to fight her off, but she near effortlessly knocked his hands away.

With a small laugh that sent chills down his spine, Bird continued to turn the blade in his wound as she reminded him, "You're a dead man, Theo Galavan."

His eyes that had been clenched shut slowly started to open as he started to recognize the voice behind the mask –as impossible as it seemed, his mind recalled the day in the warehouse when Bird had looked him in the eyes and told him the exact same thing.

"No…" He hissed in pain, "You… you're…no, you're dead."

"More alive than you are." She countered, as she pulled the knife from the deep, gaping wound and raised it up intending to continue causing him as much pain as possible.

But the door the room opened and Jim's voice called out, "Drop the knife!"

With a heavy sigh, she did as she was told and tossed the knife to the side before she slowly raised up and got off of where Theo was laying wounded on the floor.

"Detective Gordon." Galavan choked out.

"You're under arrest." Jim cut him off.

With a relieved expression, Theo admitted, "I thought you were going to shoot me. Well, thank goodness for simple men of principal… who believe in the system-"

His words were broken by a pained gasp when Bird kicked him hard in the side.

"Hey!" Jim angrily yelled at the masked woman as he turned his gun on her.

Silently, she held her hands up in surrender and took a few steps away from where Galavan was on the floor.

"Take me in." Theo groaned as he manged to get to his feet, "Get me out of here, Detective Gordon."

"Cuff yourself." Jim argued, as he kept aim with his gun in one hand and pulled a pair of cuffs off his belt and threw them to Galavan, "You'll get the chair this time."

Knowing that this was his only way safely out of the building, Galavan did as he was told but smugly commented, "Wanna bet?"

"Maybe you're right." Jim admitted out loud.

Theo looked up from where he was now standing to see Jim had his gun pointed at him and seemed unhinged enough to really take the shot.

Regretting his choice of words, Theo backtracked, " Steady now, Jim. I was just talking big, as they say. You caught me fair and square…"

"Had you that way the last time. You turned it around." Jim pointed out.

"Jim! Back up. I got him." Barnes yelled as he made his way into the room with one of the strike-force officers on his heels, "Back up, I said."

Bird cursed under her breath, wishing she'd just killed Galavan when she had the chance, before the police captain showed up.

"On your knees. I have a warrant to search these premises." Barnes said to Galavan.  
Who gave him a pained look and pointed out, "I'm injured."

"You'll receive medical care as soon as you're taken into custody." Barnes countered, before his gaze went back to where Jim was standing with his gun still drawn, "Jim, now, you put your gun on the ground and put your hands on top of your head."

"Hands up!" Barnes yelled when he saw movement from the corner of his eye and caught sight of a masked female, "Keep 'em up." He instructed when she did was she was told.

His attention went back to the detective and he explained, "You heard me. You're still a fugitive."

"Captain, I've done nothing wrong." Jim tried to argue, but it did little to his defense.

"I want to believe you, Jim. So we're gonna do this by the book. Put your gun on the ground and let's handle this the right way."

"You're making a mistake." Jim argued.  
But being the good cop that he was, he held his hands up in the air and slowly got down on his knees before laying the gun on the ground to the side.

"You too." Barnes instructed as he looked past Jim to where the masked female was still standing, "And remove the mask."

Bird heavily side and slowly got on the floor, but made no attempt to remove her mask, she peered through the eye cutout in her mask at Jim when he looked over his shoulder at her, but it was clear he didn't recognize her.

"Theo Galavan. You're under arrest-" Barnes started to read him his rights, but didn't get the chance when Oswald and Gabe entered the room and immediately knocked the strike-force officer out.

Before Barnes could respond, Oswald grabbed a heavy vase from a nearby table and broke it over his head.

When the police captain went down, Jim jumped to his feet with his gun back in hand.

"Whoa. Whoa. Whoa!" Oswald stammered, holding his leather gloved hands up, "Nobody shoot. We're all friends here-"

"Like hell we are." Jim muttered.

"I apologize for that." Oswald was quick to say as he motioned to the two unconscious officers on the floor, "But here we are. Done now. They're still alive. That's something."

Jim opened his mouth to argue, but didn't get the chance when his legs were swept out from under him and he was disarmed on his way down.

Quickly scrambling back up to his feet, Jim backed away to the side where he could keep both Oswald and the masked woman in his line of sight.

Oswald let out a deep breath, seemingly to entirely clear his lungs of all traces of air while he looked her over.

He knew her.  
Knew everything about her from the way her clothes fit to the moves she'd used when fighting off the monks. Even with her face masked –he knew her.

"Hello, old friend." Oswald greeted with soft smile when he was finally able to take a breath.

"Oswald." Bird greeted back, as she used the gun-free hand to reached up and pull the mask off, "It's good to see you again.

A soft but sad smile was on her own lips when she added, "I've missed you –I've missed seeing your face."

"Not nearly as much as I've missed yours." He replied, before the smile fell from his lips and a more serious expression took over.

Looking back to Jim, Oswald said, "Look forward now, Jim. What now? I will kill you to get to him if I have to."

"No." Bird argued, "Enough people have died because of this monster." Looking back to where Galavan was growing more unnerved by the second, she said, "Galavan is the only one who needs to die."

Jim swallowed hard, unable to tear his eyes from where Bird was standing in front of him.

The last time he'd seen her, she'd been bleeding out in his arms, fighting for every single rattling breath of air. He'd been there at the hospital when the doctor said they'd lost her.

She was dead.

He'd sat with Bruce as he cried for what seemed like hours that night.  
Saw the heartbroken expression on Alfred's face.

The guilt of not doing more to save her had been tearing him apart cell-by-cell for weeks on end.  
Nearly every night he'd dreamed of her –nightmares of how her face looked as she lay dying under the moon and streetlights. Her last words to him playing over and over like a broken record through his mind.

She was dead. He'd felt her loss every single day –yet now here she still in front of him.

He had so many questions that he knew only she could answer.  
There was so much he needed to know in order to wrap his head around how this was even possible, but now wasn't the time.

Now he had to focus on the situation at hand and the fact that he was now unarmed in a room of criminals who were hungry for Galavan's blood.

"He has to die, Jim." Bird pleaded as she looked over at him and their eyes locked.

"You know I can't let this happen." He argued as he walked up to her despite the fact that she was still armed with the gun she'd taken from him.

His eyes roamed over her face and the room fell into silence before Oswald grew tired of them staring at one another and hastily stomped his foot against the floor.

"Come on, Jim." Oswald strained, not understanding why the detective wasn't on board with the fact that Galavan had to die. He decided to try a different approach.

"Okay, let's forget revenge all together then. Forget how he orchestrated the Arkham breakout and sicced Barbara Kean on your. Forget the fact that he held my mother captive and was ultimately behind her death." His eyes darted around as he continued, "Let's even forget how you stood protecting him while Bird and I were shot –forget that you held her while she bled out from that very wound. Forget all of it. Forget revenge and think of Gotham. Think of the greater good."

"Jim." Bird continued where her friend had left off, "He has the courts in his pocket and billions of dollars at his command. If you let him go, how can you be one-hundred percent sure that he won't walk away free… again? You said yourself that he should get the chair. We all know he deserves to fry –every breath he takes is one too many."

"Think of Gotham." Oswald repeated.

Reaching out and laying her hand on Jim's arm, Bird asked, "How many more people are we going to have to watch die because of him?"

Jim's eyes fell to where her hand was on his sleeve and he swallowed hard as his mind pulled back to the night he'd thought Bird had died.

" _Captain, Bravo Team in the vicinity of the penthouse."_

Jim's eyes opened and looked over to where the voice crackled through the speaker of the radio on the officer's vest who lay next to Captain Barnes on the floor.

"He is never going to stop, Jim." Bird hastily spoke, "I know it sounds insane, but there is a centuries old blood feud between my family and his and he is never going to stop coming after Bruce and I. Until he's dead… none of us are going to be safe."

"You know she's right."  
Oswald's voice mirrored the desperation in Bird's tone and Jim glanced between them before letting his sight finally fall on Theo Galavan.

They were right and he knew it.

The only real solution out of this situation -out of all the danger they'd faced down was for Galavan to die.

Only this wasn't the way he wanted it to happen.

Every fiber of his moral being was against it.  
There should be a trial where he'd be found guilty and then sentenced to death –that would be justice.

But this… this was something else.

This was murder.

•••

* * *

 **A/N -Thank you all for reading. Crystal Reed will make her appearance as Sofia Falcone in the next new episode of Gotham. I can't even deal. Lol. All I can see in the previews is Bird!  
**

 **I know updates haven't been as frequent as they were in the past, but I'm doing my best to get the chapters wrote and posted for you all.  
Still have a lot of stuff going on in my personal life and have been so busy that sometimes I go nearly an entire week at a time without even opening my computer.**

 **So, I owe a huge thanks to everyone who has stuck by me.**

 **Also I wanted to thank everyone who was awesome enough to review the last chapter: Katniess789, chodofaggins, Love. Fiction. 2107, SmellYourScentForMiles, MzzLightwood, Munyue, Amelia, Shadow knight1121, Melody Jane, DancingDorisDay, xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, Rasiel Hasu, Guest and to Miss E Charlotte as she works on getting caught up. ^_^  
**

 **What did you all think of the chapter and Bird's return to Gotham? I can't wait to hear your thoughts.**


	18. Veni, Vidi, Vici

**XVIII**

" _But you, you're special to me. When I'm with you I feel something is just right. I believe in you. I like you. I don't want to let you go." - Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood_

* * *

•••

"You're a man of conscience, Jim." Theo Galavan breathed with his face grimaced in pain as Jim and Oswald pulled him from the trunk of the car, "You'll regret this."

"I have many regrets." Jim countered as his gaze settled on the water reflecting the city lights across it's rippling surface. His gaze then went to where Bird had just gotten a baseball bat from the backseat and shut the door. With the pain of thinking he'd lost her for good still very fresh in his heart, he added, "This won't be top of the list."

Bird followed behind the trio, as Oswald and Jim walked Galavan to near the waters edge and forced him down on his knees.

"Well… here we are." Galavan breathed, looked down to his blood soaked clothing and seemed to resign himself to the fact that this was truly how his story would end.

When he let out a small laugh, Bird placed the end of the bat under his chin and forced him to look up at them as she asked, "What do you have to smile about?"

"I never saw my life ending like this." He somberly answered, though the smile didn't leave his lips, "Next to this… polluted body of water. Killed in cold blood by a fugitive cop, a dead girl and…that." He dismissed as he nodded in Oswald's direction.

"Shame." Theo finally commented.  
He looked around the group of three staring at him, before focusing on the only one he knew would come to regret this decision, "Goodbye, Jim Gordon."

Knowing exactly what he was trying to do, that he was trying to get in Jim's head in hopes that this moment would haunt him for years to come –Bird cracked him upside the head with the bat and he landed on his side coughing and sputtering in pain with his face in the gravel littered sand.

With a wicked smile on her lips, Bird handed the bat over to Oswald who gratefully took it from her.

"This is for my mother." Oswald said, before raising the bat up into the air and swinging it down as hard as he could.

Galavan's pained screams and agonized cries filled their ears and Oswald continued to beat him.

Under his voice, the sound of bones cracking was audible and the skin on his face was blood spattered and discolored.

Jim finally looked away from the gory scene in front of him as Oswald continued to make him suffer for all his trespasses, but Bird never once looked away.

If Galavan hadn't taken more away from her friend than he did her, then she'd have been the one wanting to beat him to a bloody pulp.

But this was only right.  
She'd been able to save her brother –but Oswald had held his mother in his arms while she died.

Plus, Bird had already gotten to cause him her share of pain earlier in the night when she'd stabbed him and now that she'd landed a good blow with the bat.

"K-kill…kill… kill me, please." Galavan cried out, "Kill me!"

Glancing over to where Jim was standing at her side, Bird reminded him of something she and Oswald had repeatedly reminded him of since leaving Galavan's building, "You don't have to be here for this."

He looked at her before yelling out, "Enough!"  
Grabbing onto Oswald's shoulder he pulled him back and repeated, "That's enough."

The next few moments passed in near silence, aside from Galavan's pained groans and gasps for air as he writhed in agony on the hard, cold ground.

Raising his gun, Jim didn't give himself time to rethink how far things had gotten or the line he was about to cross as he fired a shot and put an end the reign of terror that was Theo Galavan.

Oswald managed a smile, a content feeling finally taking over instead of the all consuming need for revenge he'd had for weeks on end.

Jim walked away from the man who was dead by his hand and watched from a distance as Bird and Oswald returned to get something out of the car.

"You don't think it's too much?" Oswald questioned as he looked down to the closed umbrella in his hands.

"Never." Bird answered, looking up at her friend with a wicked smile as she knelt down and rolled Galavan's lifeless body over onto his back and added, "It's exactly what he deserves."

With that she stood back up and beside her friend as he roughly shoved the pointed end of the umbrella in Galavan's open mouth until it lodged in his throat and wouldn't go any further.

"I don't know how you're still alive…" Oswald said as he turned to face her, "But whatever the means –I am truly grateful."

With a hand over the still healing wound on her side, Bird nodded, "It's a long story, but the short version is Falcone still has some strings he's able to pull in Gotham."

Quickly she added, "This was a plan he had in place… not my idea. I'm sorry I didn't find you sooner-"

Holding up a hand Oswald promptly silenced her apologies. She didn't have a thing in the world to be sorry for when it came to him.

"I think a part of me was scared." Bird admitted, "All the news was reporting was that you were on the run –armed and dangerous, with a shoulder wound. But they never found you and none of the hospitals had any record of you showing up and… I guess I was afraid of what I'd find if I went looking."

"Yes, well, I'm on the mend. Thanks to a new friend." Oswald answered, pausing for a moment before explaining, "Apparently you know him. I've been informed you once helped him dismember an Officer Dougherty."

Bird's confused expression faded and she questioned, "Nygma?"

Oswald gave a short nod and Bird let out a small chuckle, "Small world, huh?"

"It is indeed." He agreed just before their conversation fell back into silence.

Both of them silently trying to figure out where to go from there.

Currently, there was still a warrant out for his arrest and Bird was considered to be legally dead.

But as much as he'd led himself to believe that her loss would leave him in ruin -in the days that turned into weeks of believing she was gone for good, he'd come to the painful realization that he could live without her.

For so long, being so tied up in one another, it hadn't ever really dawned on him before that he had a life that would keep going –even if her heart had stopped.

In the weeks following her death, it had felt like his guilt had become a separate entity living in his skin. Some faceless creature always there to steal his air and remind him that his very best friend was dead by a bullet meant for him.

"You died…" He breathed, "You nearly died when it should have been me. That bullet was meant for me and you-"

"Would do it again." Bird cut him off as she reached out and took his face in her hands, "What happened isn't on you. I made that decision and I'd do it all over again."

His eyes bore into hers and she asked, "What is it?"

"Something that Ed told me." Oswald admitted, his face shifting with a pained expression, "He told me that I was better off unencumbered."

"Better off with me dead?" Bird's eyebrow arched.

"And with my mother gone too." He nodded, "A man with nothing that he loves, is a man who can't be bargained with; a man who answers to no one but himself."

"A free man?" Bird cut him off, "With no weaknesses?"

"Yes." Oswald admitted, for the first time avoiding her eyes and it pained him to say it out loud but he admitted, "And up until the moment I saw your face again… I believed him."

"I don't know…" Bird said with a small shrug, "I guess that's one way to look at it. Viewing relationships and caring about other people as nothing but a weakness, but I think there's more to it than that."

Nygma had told him that with the two people he'd loved most in the world out of the picture that he would be stronger than he'd been with them in his life.  
And in his darkest moments of desperation and the weight of their losses weighing him down like a ton of bricks, he'd found himself believing his new friend.

But now, being able to have Bird back, he was finding Nygma's words harder to relate to.  
Bird loved him enough that she had died for him. She was the only true friend he'd ever known and being able to stand face-to-face with her all over again felt nothing short of a miracle.

It was worth all of the pain he'd endured just to have her back.

"What's the other way to look at it?" He finally questioned.

With a small smile, Bird brushed her windblown hair from her face and pulled in a breath, "I think having people to love can make you stronger."

Swallowing hard, she continued, "I'm not always the best at fighting for myself, you know? But I have never thought twice about fighting for you, or my brother… or anyone who means something to me."

He nodded in agreement and sniffled in the cold night air.  
Neither of them wanted to be the first to walk away.

"What now?" They both asked in unison, catching themselves off guard.

"I'm still a wanted man." Oswald reminded her.  
"And I'm dead." Bird countered.

"I don't know…" She blew out a breath as she shrugged, "Everything is different now, you know? Galavan might be dead, but your empire is in total ruin. Almost everyone has already been arrested and all the money and properties were seized. The crime world is more out of control than ever before."

"What are you saying?" Oswald questioned, his eyebrows furrowed as he spoke.

"Maybe it's not worth trying to save." She shrugged, "It would take years of work to undo the damage done-"

"We've done it before." He was fast to remind her.

"And look at where it got us." She countered.

"It doesn't matter." Oswald argued, "Galavan is dead. That is all that has mattered for months. Beyond that…" His voice trailed off.

He'd been so solely focused on his thirst for revenge that he hadn't really plotted out his next steps after that.

"I want something else." Bird weakly confessed, "I don't know what that is exactly, but I want something bigger than myself and I don't think being a crime boss fits into that plan."  
With a smile she offered, "That's your game and I fully believe that if you want it back, you're going to be able to reclaim your throne."

"I do." He nodded, "Gotham is my city. My home."

"Bird…" He cleared his throat, "The last time you spoke of wanting a different path in life, we lost touch for months on end. I don't want to lose you again."

"I don't think it matters." Bird admitted and seeing the spark back in her eyes brought a smile to his lips, "You are my dearest friend, Oswald and I think that no matter what roads we take –we're always going to end up right here."

Trying to lighten the heavy situation, she thrust a thumb over her shoulder in Jim's direction and joked, "Sharing secrets with Jim Gordon, of all people."

He lowered his head with a smile on his lips and she couldn't help but laugh at how true the sentiment truly was.

Since Jim had entered their lives, the trio had shared in one secret after another. From how he'd spared Oswald's life early on, to all the favors he'd asked of them, down to the crimes he ignored on their behalves.

Now there was the tale of a dead body to keep them bound together in secrecy.

Stepping forward she hugged him with such force that it nearly knocked the air from his lungs and he struggled to stay standing. Without hesitation he wrapped his arms around her and they stood together in silence for a while.

Bird was the first one to pull back, knowing they couldn't stay like that forever –even if they wanted to.

But it was Oswald who chose to walk away.

The next few weeks were bound to be tough for them both –in vastly different ways.  
But he believed it just as much as she did, that they would always find a way back to each other.

•••

Bird looked over to where Jim was standing next to the car after Oswald had walked away.

For a moment she almost turned and left. Unable to tell by the look on his face if he even wanted her there.

She could understand that the ones closest to her, no matter how relieved to have her back, also carried a degree of anger.

After all, they'd mourned her. Tried to move on with a life void of her presence and then she showed up and tore down any progress they'd made along that road.

Deciding that they probably needed to talk, Bird started towards him before losing her confidence on the matter and coming to a stop.

When she looked up to see he was walking to her, she ran her tongue over her lips and her gaze fell to the ground.

Coming to a stop just in front of her, his lips parted as he tried to think of where to even begin with everything he had to say to her –a part of him still could barely believe she was standing in front of him again.

Bird raised her head and looked at him finally, expecting the usual questions that she was sure anyone who saw her was wondering; the common how and whys of the situation.

But instead, Jim surprised her when he started the conversation by explaining in a gruff voice, "I was at your funeral. I stood there and watched them put an urn of ash into the ground."

"I'm sorry-"

Not letting her speak yet, he continued with a pained expression on his face, "There hasn't been a single day that's passed where I didn't play that night over in my mind –like a puzzle I had to solve. Find some solution that would have saved you… as if it could have brought you back."

"Jim-"

"I hated myself." His voice raised with the raw admission, "I hated myself for not making you talk to me when I knew for weeks on end that something was wrong. Hating myself because…. because I failed you."

"There wasn't anything you could have done." Bird finally got to contribute the their conversation.

Tilting her head slightly to the side and looking at him she said, "I don't know how much of it can be blamed on the drugs I was being dosed with… but I wanted to die and the truth is that there wasn't anyone on earth who could have shaken me out of it. Everything fell apart so fast and there wasn't any light left, you know? I was stuck out in the deep end without anything to grab onto to keep my head above water."

"Living just hurt too much." She added in a soft voice but despite its simplicity, the statement summed the last months of her life up nicely.

"But I should have seen that." He argued with her, "I know you well enough that I should have seen it and done something-"

"There's nothing you could have done." Bird repeated. "Not everything is your fault, Jim. You try… you try with everything in you, but you can't save everyone.

Those words had haunted him since the night he thought she'd died.

That he couldn't save everyone.

It wasn't a foreign concept –though it was one that he didn't care for, but it was different when it was Bird.

He'd wanted so badly to save her and in many ways he was cursed in reliving the horror of her bleeding out in his arms over and over again.

Clearing her throat she explained, "Falcone had the doctor tell everyone that I never made it off the operating table. He, uh, he said that my life was decided for me before when Lily kidnapped me and fled. That this could be a fresh start for me, you know? I could go anywhere –be anyone I wanted to be, that it would be on my own terms. And I was going to take him up on that... after all, most everyone around me is probably better off with me dead-"

"That is not true." Jim argued.

"It is." Bird countered, "But then Galavan abducted Bruce and I knew he was going to kill him and I came back."

Jim's forehead lined at her words.

For someone who considered themselves to be as poisonous and selfish as she did, she was constantly willing to give her life for the people she loved; whether that meant dying for them or trading in a chance at a clean slate so they could live to see another day.

Despite all of her self-depreciation, he could still clearly see there was something different about her.

Turmoil that she'd carried in the air around her was gone and he'd dare say she even seemed at peace –possibly more so than he'd ever seen before.

Waves lapped against the dock, the water was restless from the cold night air and for several minutes that was the only sound either of them was aware of.

Looking out into the dark water, Jim pulled in a breath so cold it felt like his lungs were caked with ice.

"Lee's pregnant."

Bird's eyes widened for a mere second before she quickly hid the shock and was left slightly stammering, "Wow… that's… congratulations."

"Yeah." He nodded, pulling his eyes from the water to look back at her.

Bird tore her gaze from his line of sight and stared down to her shoes long enough to plaster a smile on her face and look back up at him.  
Her chest felt tight, like her air supply was depleting for the second, but she didn't let it show as she said, "I'm happy for you –for both of you."

"What's, uh…" He cleared his throat, "What's next for you?"

"With Galavan gone… I think maybe I've still got a shot at some kind of fresh start." She shrugged before the intensity in her eyes grew and she admitted, "I have to start living my life the way I want to. Everyone wants me to pick a side –bow to either the sinner or the saint, but never both. But that's exactly who I am and I've made peace with that."

"A fresh start in Gotham?" Jim asked with a half-smile.

"No." She shook her head, "I don't entirely know what fresh starts are made of, but I'm pretty sure they don't exist in Gotham."

She'd barely gotten her words out before he stepped closer and asked, "You're leaving?"

"I have some loose ends I need to tie up first… but yeah, I think I'm leaving." She nodded.

Jim swallowed hard and held back what he wanted to say.

He wanted to tell her that he didn't want her to leave –that he'd just gotten her back and he wasn't ready to lose her again.

It cut deep to realize and admit to himself that he hadn't truly realized exactly how much she meant to him until she was gone.

He wanted to tell her to stay.

But it wasn't his place to do so.

He was getting ready to open a new chapter of his life and she deserved a chance to do the same –no matter how much the reality of getting her back to watch her leave again left his chest aching from the inside out.

Stepping forward Bird hugged him, holding onto him in a way that showed she didn't want to let go and when she felt his arms fold around her she had to bite down on the side of her tongue to keep her emotions at bay.

Finally she pulled back and looked at him, she didn't want to walk away from him anymore than he wanted to watch her go.

But Lee was pregnant and needed him and the next step was proposing to her.

That didn't leave room in his life for Bird –not when the lines between friendship and something more had been blurry at best between them.

"You deserve a good life, Jim Gordon." Bird didn't even make an attempt to hide the pain and emotion on her face, it would have been useless at this point.

They both knew each other far too well to try and pretend like this goodbye wasn't cutting deeply both ways.

Leaning forward she pressed a gentle kiss to his cheek before she stepped back and turned to leave without looking at his face again.

Pulling in a breath of the frigid city air, she tucked her hands in her coat pockets and walked back towards the road, unsure of where she was headed for the night but with hope that tomorrow would truly feel like a new day and maybe the pain she currently felt would ease little by little until one day it might not sting at all anymore.

•••

Bird trailed her fingers over the wall as she made her way down the hallway in Wayne Manor towards the kitchen.

Her mind kept flashing back to the hallucination she'd had when she'd nearly died. Where a darkness was chasing her through the house.

There were moments where she'd allowed herself to believe that maybe it wasn't just a dream. She'd been knocking on deaths door and according to what she'd been told her heart had stopped more than once during surgery.

Bird couldn't help but wonder if, as impossible as it seemed, if she'd somehow really been talking to her father, Thomas Wayne.

 _It felt real._  
She could still remember the warmth of his embrace, still locate the exact spot on the top of her head where he'd kissed her –just like when she was a child.

Pulling in a deep breath, she flattened her back against the wall just outside of the kitchen before finally gathering enough strength to step through the doorway.

"Change your mind about a cup of tea then, did you?" Alfred called over his shoulder when he heard soft footsteps on the floor and assumed it was Bruce who had declined the offer of a warm drink minutes before.

"I could go for some tea." Bird softly answered.

In a break from his usually composed demeanor and quick thinking when caught off guard, the glass cup fell from his hand and shattered upon impact with the floor.

Spinning around so fast he nearly lost his balance, Alfred stared at her with his mouth open and tears already beginning to fill his eyes to the brim while he stared at her in utter shock.

It was just hours ago that he'd been in an argument with Bruce over Bird's fate.

The youngest Wayne had gotten himself convinced that somehow his sister had been the masked female who'd saved his life from the monks and as much as Alfred had wished that could be true –he thought she'd been cremated and buried weeks ago.

"Lady Wayne…" Alfred managed to breathe. His suddenly clumsy tongue unable to form any other words.

"I'd, uh…" Bird cleared her hoarse throat, "I'd make some joke about how you look like you've seen a ghost, but I don't really have it in me right now."

In an instant Alfred had crossed the room and pulled her into a tight hug; one that closely resembled the feeling of when her father had hugged her in the dream she'd had.

Closing her eyes and trying her best to not let her emotions take over, she clutched onto him, breathing in the familiar scent of his cologne –and for a moment it was the single most comforting scent in the entire world.

"I…" He fought against the lump in his throat to speak, "I thought we'd lost you for good. We buried you…"

"I know." Her voice was muffled by his vest, "I thought I lost me too."

"Alfred?" Bruce called out as he rounded the corner, "I thought I heard glass-"

His sentence came to an abrupt halt when he walked into the kitchen and his eyes landed on were Bird stepped out of their butler's arms and turned to face him.

Bruce's shoulders slouched forward, the air was knocked from his body and for a split second he couldn't remember how to breathe.

"Bruce…" Bird's chin trembled as she saw the expression on his face.

She took a step towards him and with his arms wrapped around himself, he took two steps back away from her.

In spite of the tears that streaked his reddened cheeks, his face was twisted up in an expression falling somewhere between anger and devastation.

"It's okay-" Bird started to comfort him as she stepped closer intending to hug him, but in response her little brother backed up further and choked out, "Okay? How! How is any of this okay? It's not. It's not okay-"

"Master Bruce!" Alfred loudly said to get his attention, "I'm just as shocked as you are, but I'm sure that whatever has happened, your sister has been through quite the ordeal-"

"I understand." Bird cut in.

Tears rolling down her own cheeks as she stared at her brother.

It was well over a year before, but she could still so clearly remember the anger she felt when she'd crossed paths with Oswald after believing for weeks that her best friend had been murdered.

"I know how he feels." She added, glancing back to Alfred.

"Do you?" Bruce shouted out, his body continued to shake uncontrollably as he fought for each and every breath of air.

"I do." Bird nodded, "There was a time when I thought I lost someone I loved and it turned out they'd survived. I remember seeing him for the first time again and I was just as happy to see him as I was pissed off that I'd been mourning someone still living. So yeah, I get it."

Closing his eyes, he tried but failed to keep more tears from raining down his raw cheeks.

He wasn't only mad at her for not finding him sooner, he still hadn't forgiven himself for the way he'd treated her in the weeks leading up to her death.

How could any of it have happened?

He'd always considered himself a rather intelligent individual. From a young age, he'd been constantly praised for how smart he was.

And so now he'd been left wondering how someone so smart could also be so incredibly stupid.

Bird had told him repeatedly -warned him against Galavan and instead of giving any thought or credit to her claims, he'd so quickly dismissed them and was quick to turn his back on her.

Having to face her again had him experiencing an entire slew of emotions that one might experience in finding out their dead family member was very much alive -but along with those, he was also embarrassed.

For every ounce of anger he held towards her; he imagined she was holding double that for him.  
And she'd have every right to do so.

Seconds were spilling into minutes as they stood facing each other in the kitchen.  
Alfred stood back, still fighting his own misty eyes as he watched them.

Bruce opened his mouth, but nothing at all would come out. Not a single word, not even a noise.  
Just silence.

With his gaze falling to the floor, he turned and quickly left the kitchen.

"Master Bruce?" Alfred called after him.

Bird stood in place for several seconds once her brother was gone, before she used the sleeves of her coat to dry her cheeks and eyes and turned to face Alfred with a helpless expression on her face as she asked, "What do I do?"

"I'm not good a this stuff." She stammered out in a fast paced tone, "Is this one of the times I'm supposed to chase after him or should I give him space-"

"I can't answer that." Alfred seemed at a loss himself, "This is uncharted territory, Lady Wayne. I haven't the slightest idea of what comes next."

Finally feeling all of the pain and exhaustion of over-exerting herself that day while still trying to recover from being gravely injured, Bird's legs felt comparable to Jell-O as she made her way over to the table to take a seat.

"Cup of tea?" Alfred asked, his eyes hadn't left her since the moment he'd laid sight on her.  
Perhaps he was holding a fear that if he took his eyes off of her she might vanish.

Silently she nodded.

"What…" Alfred breathed as he set her cup of tea in front of her and seemed to have trouble landing in the chair across the table from her, "What happened?"

"Don Falcone." She answered, pausing long enough to take a drink before continuing, "I remember the pain of being shot and then being on the ground staring up at Jim's face and him telling me to hold on that help was on the way. And I remember…"

Tears welled back up in her eyes and she struggled through the memories of that night, "And I remember he looked so sad. Like… like I was already gone, you know?"

Bird's eyes fell to the table when she saw a tear roll down the side of Alfred's worn face.

Clearing her throat and choosing to leave out the dream she'd had of Thomas Wayne, she continued, "And then I woke up to blinding white lights and choking on the breathing tube down my throat."

"So Falcone, eh, he's the one who made the decision to to keep you away from all of us?" Alfred asked with anger lacing every syllabic.

"He did it for me." Bird defended.

"Did he, now?" Alfred's voice raised, "How could ripping you out of the lives of the people who love you possibly be doing you any favors?"

"He tries to do right by me. In his own way." Bird let out a low chuckle, "Apparently that's something I inherited, because all I wanted was to do the right thing when it came to Bruce and all I've ever managed to do was screw things up worse."

"Falcone wanted to give me a chance at a new life. So much of my life has been decided for me, since I was born and Lily took me and ran. It's always felt like I'm on a crash course, you know? Speeding towards disaster and no way to stop it. Every time I tried to do something different, to be something else -things fell apart and dragged me right back down." Bird took another drink of her tea, "Then I died and it ended up being the perfect opportunity to have something different than the hand I'd been dealt."

Nodding with a new understanding, Alfred pointed out, "But here you are."

"Word came from Falcone's informants that you'd been brought into the police station injured and saying Bruce had been taken by Galavan." Bird nodded, "There was no way in hell that I was going to let him endanger Bruce's life any further-"

"It was you." Bruce interupted from where he'd been standing just out of sight beyond the doorway, "You jumped in the way when that knife was thrown at me and you stopped it."  
His gaze drifted over to Alfred as he repeated, "I knew it was her."

"That you did." Alfred conceded to the argument they'd had earlier in the night.

"I'm sorry." Bird softly said as she looked over to where her little brother was standing.

"Where were you?" He asked, his voice no louder than hers had been.

Wordlessly, he walked from where he'd been eavesdropping over to sit at the end of the table with Bird and Alfred.

"Falcone-" Bird started to launch into a replay of the story she'd just told Alfred, but Bruce shook his head, "No, I heard all of that."

When their eyes met he pushed, "Where have you been tonight? I was so sure it was you earlier and then I kept waiting for you to walk in the door and… that was hours ago. Were you trying to decide if you wanted to come see me?"

"Of course I wanted to see you." Bird silenced him, "But I had some things I needed to care of before I could."

"Important things?"

With an arched brow, Bird cautiously answered, "Yes…"

"More important than to you than coming here?"

She let out a sigh at the loaded question.

"No, not more important." She argued, "But I had to prioritize and some ends needed tied up-"

"What ends?" Alfred threw out the question and Bruce nodded along with him,

"He was never going to stop coming after us, Bruce. There was only one way to ensure your safety Bruce, and so I prioritized that over coming here." Looking between them, Bird pulled in a deep breath before admitting, "Theo Galavan is dead."

Bruce's eyebrows furrowed, "You -you killed him?"

"No." She was able to honestly answer since Jim Gordon had been the one to pull the trigger, "But I did play a part in it."

"Who killed him?" Bruce pushed for more information.

Refusing to answer, Bird evaded, "The important thing is that he's gone and he's not going to hurt us or anyone else ever again."

"I'm sorry." Bruce repeated her earlier sentiment back to her. Shaking his head near frantically the tears welled back up in his eyes, "Galavan was behind everything. He's the reason you ended up in Arkham in the first place and then you tried to warn me against Silver and I was too blinded to see it. But you were right. You were right about everything and I was horrible to you when you didn't deserve it."

"Well…" Bird breathed, "In your defense, I can only imagine how crazy I seemed."

"Which wasn't your fault." Alfred spoke up, "Detective Gordon told us about the hallucinogenic drugs found in your system when you had Dr. Thompkins test your blood."

Bird looked down, clearly still having trouble absolving herself of fault for how she'd acted.

"I understand now." Bruce was able to hold a steady tone for the first time all night, "Theo Galavan wanted control over Wayne Enterprises and you signed over your shares to me… because you knew he'd have to keep me alive for that. You were trying to keep me safe."

"I tried." Bird blinked as she gripped onto the table to stand up.

Almost immediately, Bruce was out of his chair as well and finally able to accept the hug she'd been trying to give him since he'd first seen her again.

Her eyes pinned shut and she clutched tighter onto him when she could feel his body shaking in her arms.

Through her blurry eyes she could see Alfred was also standing next to the table now and she couldn't help but let out a small laugh as she said, "Come on, Alfred. Get in on this."

Not needing a second invitation, he walked over and folded his arms around them both.

What a mess they were, Bird thought to herself.

She was broken in more ways than she could count and her now-not-so-little brother wasn't far behind her in that department. Alfred had his own demons and wounds that came to be before he'd ever come to work for the Waynes.

They were a mess, there was no denying that, but they were a family.

•••

"Are you staying tonight?" Bruce asked as he walked out of his bathroom to find his sister sitting in the chair in his room on top of some extra blankets.

"I don't know." Bird said.

Bruce came to a stop at her words, his mouth hung open as he tried to think of what to say next with the lingering minty tingle of his toothpaste still on his gums.

He wanted her to stay, but he was finally starting to understand just how much of her life she'd devoted to him and the other people that she loved.

How many times had she put her very life in danger for him and he'd never known?

"I want you to know…" He cleared his throat as he walked over and sat down on his bed, "I won't tell anyone."

When a confused expression twisted her face, he furthered, "That you're alive."

Taking in a breath and pushing his own emotions and wants to the side, he said, "I know you want to leave Gotham and it's okay. You don't have to stay for me."

"Bruce…" She shook her head, already having resigned herself to staying in the city, "I don't want to hurt you again-"

"When was the last time you were happy?" He questioned, as usual seeming wise beyond his young years, "Really happy, Starling?"

Sucking in a deep breath between her teeth she shook her head back and forth, "That's a complicated question."

"It isn't." Bruce argued with her, "It's simple actually."

"Okay then, when was the last time you were happy?" Bird shot back at him.

"Earlier tonight." He admitted, "When I was waiting to die in the cell they were holding me in."

"What?" Bird nearly choked on her own voice as she got up and went to sit next to him on his bed.

Glancing over at her he nodded, "There was this moment when I looked out of the bars over the window and I could see the moon. Even with all of the lights of the city, it was so bright. Just like when I'd go hiking and camping with dad."

"I mean, I was scared, but I saw the moon like that and then I thought of how this was going to be the last time I'd see then without mom and dad…and you." His face started to scrunch up at his own words, "And even though I was close to death, I felt alive. Happy that I was going to see my parents again. Happy that I would get to see my sister again."

"Because as scary as dying is… it's not near as bad as being the one left behind." She reasoned and he nodded in agreement.

"Life is fragile." Bird continued, "Dying is the easy part. But this -this right here, living and having to keep breathing when the people you love the most are gone, this is the hard part. It was easier for me to jump in front of a bullet for Oswald than it was getting out of bed every day these last months."

She caught the hint of judgment in his eyes, before he diverted his gaze and thought carefully of how he'd word the next question he wanted to ask.  
Only there didn't seem to be an eloquent way to do so.

"What was it like?" Bruce finally asked, still avoiding eye contact with his older sister.

"What was what like?" She questioned for a fleeting confused moment until it dawned on her, "Dying?"

"Yes." He nodded, "You don't have to answer-" He quickly started to dismiss.

"Awful." Bird interrupted with a dry laugh on her tongue, "Excruciatingly painful."

Turning slightly to get a look at her face, Bruce waited patiently for her to explain further.

"Strangely peaceful." She added, looking at him when she said, "It was different then when I was younger after -well, you know."

"Different how?" He asked in a voice so quiet she barely heard him.

"I guess because it was part my decision and not something that was done to me." Bird answered.

She knew it was going to be a hard pill for him to swallow, but he asked a question and she'd promised him months ago that she'd be more honest with him.

"Theo Galavan had to die." Bird remembered, "Oswald and I were determined to take him out -even if we had to die doing so. That day is sort of a blur now… but I remember us speaking before we went to the party and us both making peace with the fact that we might not survive the night. And then I remember being in a standoff with Jim and Bullock over Galavan's life and then I saw someone on the roof with a gun-"

Bird's eyebrows furrowed as she forced herself to remember more details, "We knew that Galavan had gone through with his celebration for winning the election as a trap to try and draw Oswald out and so it was clear that he was going to be their prime target and I tried to knock him to the ground and out of harms way… but I wasn't fast enough. The shot had been fired and… and I remember the bullet hurting more when it left my side then when it went in. It happened on the way down and the bullet went through me and into Oswald's shoulder."

"I'd nearly been killed before and so I knew that feeling. What dying feels like…" Bird cleared her throat and looked away from Bruce when she could see the tears starting to well back up in his eyes, "The feeling of my clothes being soaked in my own blood and sticking to my skin like I'd been caught out in a rain storm. Dying feels like…" Blowing out a breath she tried to formulate the all too familiar feeling into words, "Cold. I was freezing and it was dark. The moon and the streetlights lost their glow and…"

"Alone?" His voice cracked.  
Since losing his parents well over a year ago, he'd given so much thought to his own mortality; dwelled far too often on trying to imagine what someones last moments on earth would feel like and so often he'd imagined those moments would be cold and lonely.

"Sort of." She shrugged, "I remember Detective Bullock hovering over me and trying to slow the bleeding and then I don't know where he went but Jim was there in his place and trying to tell me to hold on, but his voice sounded so distorted, like he was trying to talk to me from the other side of a tunnel -but it didn't really matter. The last time I was shot and left for dead, I was alone in a cold alley and this time someone was there and I don't know, but that counted for a lot more than I expected it would."

"What happened after that?" Bruce asked when she held her silence.

"I, uh…" She breathed with her face starting to twist up in an unsure expression.  
As far as anyone else knew, the next thing she remembered was waking up surrounded by medical equipment with the doctor monitoring her -but something else happened before that, and it was something she'd kept entirely to herself,

"I was here." Bird admitted, deciding to be entirely honest, "I was wandering through Wayne Manor, confused and in pain with this overwhelming feeling of needing to get out of the house. The front door was open and there was this blinding white light on the other side of it and the closer I moved to the door the less I hurt. But then I heard something -I thought I heard you and so I turned and went deeper into the house cause I thought you were still inside and I had to get you to safety."

Leaving out the part of being swallowed up by dark vines, Bird said, "Then I saw mom and dad."

"You saw them?" Bruce nearly gasped with a few stray tears leaving trails down his cheeks.

"Yeah, but I only got to talk to dad." Bird recalled, "He made me remember what had happened -how I'd been shot and then he pretty much told me it wasn't my time and I had to keep fighting…"

When she saw the expression on her little brothers face she quickly tried to dismiss, "But you gotta remember that I still had the drugs I'd been dosed with in my system and so it was probably just a dream or hallucination-"

"I don't think it was just a dream." Bruce spoke.

Bird's eyebrow raised at his thoughts.  
He'd just said moments before that when he thought he was going to die, that a part of him was happy at the idea of being reunited with his slain parents.

Perhaps it was more a matter of his hopes that whenever he did meet his end that his parents would be there to greet him with open arms.

Either way, Bird shrugged and dismissed the possibility.

"You should get some sleep." Bird said as she gave his arm and a small squeeze and started to stand up, but he grabbed onto her arm and asked, "Are you leaving?"

"I'm not sure." She answered, "But I promise I won't take off in the middle of the night. So get some sleep."

"I got a name."

"A name?" Bird repeated back as she dropped back down into a seated position on the bed.

"Theo Galavan knew who killed our parents." Bruce admitted to her.  
He wanted her to have all the facts before she made her decision to leave Gotham.

"I got a name out of Silver." Bruce admitted with the traces of a smug expression pulling at his features, "Malone. The name of the person who shot mom and dad is M. Malone."

"I know it's not much, but-" He started to say.

"It's a name." Bird cut him off, "It's a start and it's more than we had to go on before."

Nodding, there was new found determination in his voice when he said, "I'm going to find him."

••• **a few days later •••**

"Traveling light, my dear?" Carmine Falcone questioned as he watched Bird walk closer from where her taxi had stopped.

She offered a solemn smile and when he noticed the taxi was idling instead of driving away, he realized, "Changed your mind about leaving?"

"I'm sorry." Bird earnestly replied as she came to a stop in front of him.

"As am I." He answered, letting the disappointment show on his aged face.

He'd had such hope that she was really ready to embrace who she was and where she came from.  
She had family in the south –blood family and there was still so much she didn't know.

Things that he'd hoped to share with her.

"It's funny, you know?" She broke the silence and looked out across the river at the Gotham City skyline, "The whole time you were wanting me to take over the city when you stepped down and I did everything I could to push it away. All the of the times that I wanted to run away and leave these dirty streets behind…"

Tucking her hands in to her coat pockets she offered up a shrug, "When I came back that night to save my brother from Galavan –I had the strangest feeling in my stomach the entire drive here. I thought it was nerves or even fear-"

"And the rest?" He interrupted.

With her dimples visible from the small smile she was wearing, Bird admitted, "It felt like coming home."

"For all of her flaws and the ability to bend people until they break… Gotham is my home." Bird pulled in a deep breath of the cold night air and let it expand in her chest before exhaling the stale city air, "Everything and everyone I love is here."

Walking over to where she was standing, Falcone turned around so he was also facing out across the water and nodded his head in agreement.

He had always found himself unable to stay away from Gotham for too long.  
There was something about the vibrations flowing through the heart of the city that acted like a sirens song –and he found himself drawn back in every single time.

"You could still come with me." He offered, already feeling like it was wasted air and words, "At least see the estate in the south… people for you to meet, stories to learn."

"Thank you for everything." Bird said without giving him an answer to what he'd asked, "I know you wanted to give me a second chance at life somewhere away from here; that in your own way, you're trying to make up for all the wrongs. But you should know that I forgive you."

She felt lighter once the words left her body.  
It was time for a new era in Gotham. A chance to do things right this time around.

In the life she'd lived, she'd seen so many be their own downfall with their never ending thirst for revenge.  
Witnessed good people be so entirely consumed with hatred that it ate irreparable holes in their very souls.

But not her.

No, she wasn't going to let her past rule over her future.

It was time to grow up.  
To stop using the hardships she'd faced as an excuse.

It wasn't going to happen overnight, she knew it was going to be a long way back from hell, but she had to make peace with everything she'd gone through.

Much like she'd chosen to live her life by own her terms and not by how other people wanted to see her.

Turning his head and looking down to where she stood at his side, he explained, "I'm not looking to be absolved of my guilt and my wrong doings. You're my family. My daughter; my very own flesh and blood. And while you may still be struggling to think of me in the same way, I do have hope that, in time, your views will change."

With his gaze now fixed across the water once again, he added, "Anything you need. I'm here."

Bird held her silence for a few moments, before she said, "At the end of the week, I'll be leaving for Switzerland with my brother and Alfred. We have a chalet there. I'm not sure how long we'll be gone, but in the mean time..."

Her voice trailed off and she waited until Falcone had turned to face her before she continued, "Can you have someone look into a name for me? M. Malone."

"M. Malone?" He repeated back, "Who is that?"

"According to the information my brother got out of Galavan's niece… he's the one who killed our parents." She answered, "It's not much, but it's a name and I just thought since you still have people in the GCPD that maybe-"

"I'll see what I can find out." He answered, before pointing out, "You have your own contact, don't you? Why not have Gordon follow up with this?"

Shaking her head, Bird quietly answered, "He's going to be tied up in legal matters of his own for quite a while. Jim was already a fugitive before this and then Barnes saw him at the penthouse that night. Once Galavan's body is discovered…"

Blowing out a breath she tucked her hair behind her ears and shook her head, "He's going to have enough to answer for. I'm not involving him in this."

"Understood." Falcone nodded, "I'll have my people look into the name."

"Thank you." Bird gratefully answered.

With her sight now fixated across the water and the skyline once again, she pulled in a deep breath and held it tight before slowly exhaling with a smile creeping across her lips.

Her life was still nothing short of a complicated disaster, but she couldn't shake the feeling that she'd found her way onto the path she was meant to have traveled all along -or maybe she was still on a crash course disaster.

Only time would tell; but there was peace in knowing that her decision to stay in Gotham City was all her own.

 **•••**

* * *

 **A/N - Thank you all for reading! I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.  
**

 **A very special thank you to Shadow knight1121. Rasiel Hasu, Love. Fiction. 2017, PetrovaLover, DancingDorisDay, Katniess789, Kakkorat is Cake, Amelia, and to 1fan for reviewing since my last update.**

 **You can find me on Tumblr ( _twofacedharveydent_ )**  
 **I usually post edits for my stories and have been doing my best to gif this season of Gotham as well. :P**

 **What did you all think of Bird's reunions with everyone?  
Oswald and Jim, of course, saw her at the end of the last chapter, but they didn't really get to speak and reconnect with her until this chapter.  
**  
 **I'd really appreciate it if you'd take a couple moments to leave a review. :)  
**


	19. Twenty-something

**XIX**

" _I don't dress for success; failure is way more my style." -Unknown_

* * *

•••

"That's the last one." Erin said as she watched Bird sign the last set of pages in the stack that she'd had drawn up at the District Attorney's office.

Bird didn't miss the nervous stammer that accompanied her lawyers words.

Dropping the pen to the table next to the papers, Bird popped her knuckles on her right hand and then shook it out to the side and looked up to where her lawyer was standing before she questioned, "So I'm in the clear?"

"Well…" Erin blew out a heavy breath, "While you spent a month and half vacationing out of the country in Switzerland -some of us were here working tirelessly to ensure that your return from the dead wouldn't land you in Blackgate."

Nodding in response to the earlier question, Erin added, "Yes, you're in the clear now. The DA's office has dropped all pending charges against you and though Captain Barnes' remains convinced that you were the masked figure at Galavan's penthouse -he can't prove it. And from what I understand, Detective Gordon is maintaining that Cobblepot knocked him out moments after Barnes' arrived and played no part in Galavan's demise. Meaning he can't very well I.D you at the scene without incriminating himself."

Bird's eyes fell to where Erin's always perfectly manicured nails had been chewed down to the quick.  
It was perfectly clear just how nervous the lawyer who she'd considered to be a close friend had been ever since Bird had returned from the dead.

"Thank you." Bird curtly nodded as she stood up and started for the door of the room before turning and asking, "Are you free tonight? There are some things I think we need to discuss… maybe over dinner?"

"Yeah. Sure." Erin answered, trying not to appear too rattled, "Anything in particular on the agenda?"

"Nothing that can't wait until later." Bird coyly answered.

Once she was out of the room, Erin barely made it to the chair before her wobbly legs fully gave way.

With trembling fingers she started to gather up all of the signed legal documents and sort them into three separate stacks.

It was sure to be a very long day until dinner finally arrived -yet somehow not long enough.

Bird was nearly out the front doors of the courthouse when she heard a familiar voice call out to her.

"Starling."

"Harvey." She turned and greeted her ex, "Hey."

He came to a stop just in front of her and looked her over with his mouth hung slightly open at a loss for words.

"You look…" His voice trailed off and Bird guessed, "Exhausted? Jet lagged?"

"Alive." The corner of his mouth twitched up into a smile, "You have no idea how happy I am to see you. I mean, seeing that you're alive on paper is one thing, but being able to see you my own two eyes is the only way it even remotely feels real."

Without giving her a chance to respond he added, "I am sorry. For not believing you when it came to Galavan. There is no excuse for how I acted or treated you -but I guess, I so badly wanted to believe he was the real deal. That someone who had the power and influence to actually make a difference in this city was holding a position of power to allow them to do so and-"

"It was easier to believe in that dream than in your crazy ex-fiance?" Bird guessed and even though her words could be taken as bitter, there wasn't any trace of it in her tone.

"I'm sorry." He empathetically repeated.

"Water under the bridge." Bird offered with a small smile.

"How are you? I mean after everything you've gone through…" He finished with a shrug, unable to think of a way to finish the sentence that she wouldn't take offense too.

"Stronger." Bird answered, tucking her hair behind her ears with her the hand she wasn't holding her sunglasses in, "It's not like it was easy, but I guess it's true that sometimes you have to hit rock bottom before you can start to build yourself back up. Don't get me wrong, there is a million other ways I'd rather have had this year go… but having nearly everyone either turning on me or just not believing me forced me to keep believing in myself and that was something I'd been struggling with for a long time."

"They say everything happens for a reason." He quietly replied while still wearing the same broken expression that used to have her bending over backwards to assure him things were alright.

"That they do." Bird chuckled, before saying, "It was great seeing you Harvey, but I should get going. Alfred's waiting out in the car."

Glancing out through the glass doors, Harvey gave a brief nod, "I'm still here, you know. If you need anything or just someone to talk to."

Bird pulled her dark sunglasses on and smiled at him before pulling the doors open and walking out into the early afternoon sunlight.

It was a nice offer and after everything they'd gone through, she was thankful they could remain civil and not have everything that was good between them swallowed up in a bitter blame game of why they couldn't make it work; but she doubted she'd need to take him up on the offer, she'd learned to rely on herself and that meant more than his words ever could.

•••

Bird and Alfred could hear the heavy hits of Bruce's fists against the punching bag long before they entered the room in which he was near frantically hitting the bag hanging down from a chain.

Aware of his no longer being alone, but also not even fully turning to acknowledge them, Bruce complained, "We had a training session."

Bird's eyebrows raised and she had to physically bite down on the side of her tongue to keep from snapping back at him.

Their time away from Gotham had felt like anything but a vacation. Instead of days spent relaxing away from the fast paced city, Bruce had wanted to continue to his training.

His temperamental moods seemed to suck the life out of the air around him and he hadn't just been angry -he'd been nearly flying into rages when things didn't go his way.

It didn't feel like all that long ago, that Bird herself was dealing with the internal and external turmoil that comes along with being a teenager who'd suffered through far more than anyone their age should have to, so she was doing her very best to be understanding.

"Yeah, well, we got held up in the city, didn't we?" Alfred replied with much more restraint in his voice than Bird would have been able to pull off.

With a frustrated noise, Bruce hit the bag one last time before abruptly spinning around and jerking a glass of water off the table behind him up.

"Yes, you did." Bruce gruffly said before demanding to know, "Held up doing what exactly?"

"You knew today was when I had to meet with lawyers and sign a mountain of paperwork." Bird remind him.

"Yes." He nodded, before turning around and eyeing both his sister and butler as he admitted, "Harvey Dent said you left the courthouse over an hour ago."

"You were checking up on me?" Bird snapped, no longer able to keep calm.

Mirroring her anger, Bruce loudly repeated, "We were supposed to have a training session!"

"Was I this angsty when I was his age?" Bird questioned as she looked back to where Alfred was standing.

"Oh, Lady Wayne…" Alfred chuckled, "You were much, much worse."

"Go ahead." Bruce's jaw tensed and nearly locked in anger, "Keep making jokes at my expense, but don't forget that I'm the one got the name of the man who murdered my parents. Then you made us leave Gotham, of course I'm agitated."

"We've lost more than a month that we could have spent searching for M. Malone-" Bruce continued to complain, but both Alfred and Bird were fed up with his constant reminding them of how much he'd accomplished on his own.

"We left the city because you were at the end of your emotional and your physical rope... and quite frankly, you're incapable of catching a common cold, let alone a killer…" Alfred's sentence ended in a sigh when Bruce turned back and channeled his frustrations on the punching bag once again.

"Will you stop?" His voice raised, but Bruce payed him no mind.

"Alfred's right." Bird agreed with their butler, "We have to be smart about this. This isn't the type of situation you charge into half-cocked. It's not just about the man who pulled the trigger it's also a matter of finding out who ordered the hit."

When her little brother either didn't hear her or didn't care enough about what she had to say to put a pin in his self-led training session, Bird loudly complained, "Really, Bruce?"

"Master Bruce!" Alfred yelled.

Spinning around, Bird kicked the bag her brother was hitting and sent it coming at him so hard that it knocked him to the floor.

Sputtering and kicking backwards, Bruce looked up at her in shock from where he'd landed on the floor.

"Are we in this together?" Bird asked as she stepped closer and extended a hand to him.

"What?" He spat with his gaze going back to the training bag he'd been knocked down with.

"It's a very serious question, Master Bruce." Alfred agreed, "Are we in this together? Tracking down the man who shot your mum and dad?"

"Yes." Bruce answered as he, for the first time, payed enough attention to read the expressions on their faces, "We're in this together."

He let his older sister pull him to his feet before he got to work unwrapping his knuckles and watched them expectantly.

"Before we left the country, I asked Don Falcone to have someone look into M. Malone." Bird admitted, "After the courthouse earlier today, Alfred and I met with one of his sources and we got something."

"What?" Bruce asked, his eyes filled with emotion as he walked closer to where Bird had went to stand next to Alfred's side.

"Patrick Malone." Bird answered, "Apparently he burned a man alive once-"

"Matches Malone." Alfred repeated, before displaying the folder he'd been holding onto behind his back, "Delightful chap, really. Committed his first murder when he was fifteen. Suspected of half a dozen since. Now, I need to ask you, if you were in charge, what next?"

Avoiding the question he'd been asked, Bruce replied with one of his own as he stared down the Gotham City Police file in his hands, "You could have gotten this information from Detective Gordon, why didn't you contact him?"

"Well, that's not exactly how your sister handles things, now is it?" Alfred chimed in.

Side-eyeing him, Bird explained to them both, "Jim would just try and stop us from going after Malone on our own. I barely avoided facing down the criminal charges GCPD slapped on me before I died. I'm not giving them any reason to start digging around in my life again."

"Say we find this man. What do you plan to do?" Alfred questioned.

Bruce dropped the file he'd been looking through onto the table and took a drink from his glass of water, avoiding both sets of eyes on him, "See him prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

"Liar." Bird accused, her head cocked to the side when caught the gleam of darkness in his eyes, "You asked me to be entirely honest with you… so I think I'm due the same courtesy."

"When we find him-" Bruce hastily chugged down the remaining water in the glass, "I intend to kill him."

"No." Both Bird and Alfred snapped at him.

Turning back to face them, he argued, "You can't stop me."

"I bloody can and I will." Alfred bellowed before composing himself and explaining, "You're too young to have a death on your conscience, Master Bruce. I know how your parents deserve justice. I know you're not gonna stop till you find it. But when we find this Malone, I will kill him and not you."

"Or it's going to be me who kills him; but not you, little brother." Bird quickly said.

"This isn't right-" Bruce tried to argue, but Bird didn't let him, "You'll regret it. Probably not for a while -maybe not even for years, but at some point that moment… the moment you decided to take another life is going to bubble back to the surface and not let you rest. It will haunt you and I'm not going to let that happen."

"Then what about your conscience?" He tested.

"There are some people who can live with having killed others -people like me. But that's not who you are." Bird simply answered.

"Seems we have our terms then." Alfred cleared his throat, "Do you accept?"

"Yes."

"Say it." Alfred instructed him.

"We find him, we make him talk… and then one of you kills him." Bruce said.

"Alright." Alfred accepted, "I'll get started on lunch then."

Once he was up the stairs and out of sight, Bird turned back to her little brother and softly said, "I know you want revenge. I know how that feels like an all consuming fire, burning you up from the inside out. But Alfred and I are trying to protect you from doing something you will regret."

"You weren't there, Starling." Bruce said, his voice just as low and calm as hers now, "I saw our parents be killed right in front of my eyes. Dad died quickly, but mom? She laid there on the ground choking on her own blood. I can't see myself ever regretting putting a stop to the man responsible for that."

"You're right. I wasn't there." She conceded, "But I have spent plenty of time in the company of death to know the mark it leaves in it's wake and I want more than that for you, okay? I promise you we're going to find Matches Malone and once we do, I'll put him down. For us both -for what he did to our parents."

•••

"Miss Windsor." The man at the door greeted with a curt nod before he pulled open the door to the restaurant for the lawyer and ushered her in, "She's expecting you."

Erin couldn't even a force a smile on her lips when she crossed over the the threshold and into the old world Italian restaurant.

The place was usually a popular dining choice among Gothamites in the evenings, but tonight the place was entirely empty.

She was far too self aware of the sound of her breathing and the way her heart was rapidly thudding against the rib composed cage inside of her chest.

Every click her heels made against the floor sounded like the second hand on a clock and time was running out.

"Right this way." The host greeted with a smile as he nodded for Erin to follow him and led her up the stairs to the second floor of the restaurant where there was usually a few tables with a balcony view over the rest of the place.

Only today, there was a single table on the interior balcony with just two chairs -one of them already occupied by Bird.

Erin's breath caught in her throat at the sight in front of her and she thought to herself that if it hadn't been for Bird's worn jeans and her choice of an old faded rock band logo t-shirt, then the entire scene could easily pass for a meeting with a mobster.

It was in this very restaurant that Carmine Falcone had held many dinners with the ones who worked closest under him.

Of course she'd never been called to a dinner there alone with him -she doubted anyone who had ever lived to tell the tale.

Yet, now here she stood. Hesitating to take her seat at the table opposite The Roman's daughter.

Even with her poor fashion choices and donning the Wayne name, there was no denying how much she was made in the likeness of her biological father.

She was every bit as dangerous and deadly as the man who ruled the city for years on end -sometimes from that very seat.

"Erin." Bird greeted with a stone expression upon seeing her lawyers hesitation to join her at the table, "Have a seat."

"Bird." She cringed at the sound of her own trembling voice.

She knew exactly what this was.  
This was a last dinner and she was the guest of honor.

Once she'd sat down in the only other chair at the opposite end of the table from Bird, Erin cleared her throat and looked to the waiter, "A Cardinale." Pausing for barely a second after ordering her drink, she held up her hand and changed, "Two, please."

With a nod the lawyer, he turned to Bird who was still slowly nursing her Americano cocktail. Bird shook her head, declining another drink and with that he made his way over to the fully stocked bar.

"What are you having?" Bird questioned as she eyed the menu in front of her with a thoughtful expression.

"You said we needed to discuss something-" Erin tried to cut the chase, but Bird ignored her and interrupted, "You up to splitting an order of polenta fries? I've always been a sucker for them when their prepared right with truffle oil."

Silently, the waiter set her two matching drink glasses down in front of her and Erin took a large drink from the first one before trying again, "You wanted to discuss something?"

"Dinner first." She gruffly said before her dark painted lips curved up in a smile and she reasoned, "Business can wait until after desert, right?"

Wordlessly Erin nodded with a helpless expression and couldn't bring herself to even answer when Bird ordered, "I think we'll start off with an order of truffle polenta fries. You want the spicy garlic sauce with them or the lemon-truffle mayonnaise?"

When her dinner guest wouldn't answer, Bird looked back to the waiter and said, "You know what -we'll take both."

"Of course, ma'am." The waiter politely replied before turning to go to the kitchen.

Erin downed another large swallow of her cocktail and tried to keep her burning questions at bay, knowing it wouldn't serve her in the slightest to keep bombarding Bird with questions.

It was clear the young woman was taking a page from Falcone's handbook.  
Dinner first.  
Business after.

It was an effective tool for sure. Could even be considered a form of torture.  
After all, when waiting to find out if you're about to be killed -the last thing on your mind or nerve-ridden stomach is food.  
But it would be considered rude and disrespectful to not eat when invited to a dinner.

"I've dined here a lot in my life…" Bird thought out loud with a chuckle, "Every single time I end up reading the menu cover-to-cover and still end up getting the brickoven pizza."

When the waiter returned with their truffle fries, Bird ordered her usual favorite pizza and Erin ordered one of the first things her eyes landed on on the menu, chicken calabrese.

"I saw on the news that Oswald is being transferred to Arkham." Bird brought up, her eyebrows making their way up her forehead as she stared Erin down.

"Yes, he-" Erin started to say, but Bird cut in, "Which confuses me a little because I remember telling you I wanted a team of the best defense attorneys out there entirely devoted to his case."

"I did exactly as you asked." Erin was fast to say, but she let out sigh at knowing her next words wouldn't make Bird too happy, "He's refused the offer."

"He what?" Bird nearly choked on her bite of food.

"He rejected the defense offer and has instead chose to plead insanity -earning himself a one way ticket to Arkham." Erin's brows furrowed when she added, "Arkham has a new chief of psychiatry now too -a Dr. Hugo Strange."

Bird looked down to her plate with a new feeling of sickness rising in her stomach.

Why wouldn't Oswald let her help him?  
He was taking both the credit and accepting the consequences for a crime, for a murder that he didn't commit.

Maybe in some ways he felt he deserved the punishment; for not being able to save his mother, along with a laundry list of other regrets.

"No matter." She cleared her throat and shook her head before taking a sip of her americano and reasoning, "He'll come to his senses sooner or later. Not like he can begin to build his empire back up from inside a place like Arkham."

The pair made small talk and Erin filled Bird in on various news headlines from the city she'd missed while she was out of the country.

And it wasn't until after they'd each had a desert of tiramisu and their table had been cleared, that Bird finally seemed willing to be candid about why she'd extended an invitation for dinner.

"You seem nervous, Erin." Bird observed, watching her lawyer and someone she'd considered a friend through her coyly narrowed eyes, "You've been on edge since the moment you walked through the doors."

"How long have you known?" Erin questioned.

When she saw Bird was still unwilling to reveal her hand, Erin breathed, "Look, Bird, I know I'm a lawyer and playing games is practically what I'm payed to do. But I don't want to do that with you. You are someone I've grown to consider a friend. So if you're going to kill me then-"

"Friend?" Bird repeated back, "Is it common for you to go about dosing your friends with hallucinogenic drugs these days?"

Erin's eyes raised from the spot she'd fixated her gaze on at the table to Bird's face.

There was no point in denying her guilt. It was obvious that Bird knew the truth and she'd grown to respect the young woman nearly as much as she'd respected Falcone in all her years of being on his payroll.

"I know it doesn't matter that much; but for what its worth… I am sorry." Erin blinked rapidly to keep the tears from spilling down her face, before staring up into the light above the table and continuing, "I've been in the game long enough to know how his works and I know my words won't change anything, but Bird you should know that if I could take it all back -I would."

"I trusted you." Bird admitted to her with a painful rawness, "And that isn't something I easily do. I'm distrustful by nature. You were one of the last people I'd have pegged as the one who'd been drugging me."

Erin's eyes went to the thick, off-white cloth napkin lying off to Bird's right side on the table.  
It had been laying there since she walked in and she was more than sure that there was gun hidden under it.

"I know you brought me here to kill me." Erin boldly said.  
She wanted to explain herself. Get Bird to understand why she'd betrayed that trust, but she knew in these situations that it never mattered.

She'd been sure since Bird extended the dinner invitation to her earlier that day that she'd had her mind up exactly on how the day would end; with another body weighted down in the river

"It's crossed my mind." Bird openly admitted as she finally pulled the napkin off of the gun and leaned back in her seat some, "Give me a reason not too."

"It's doesn't matter what I have to say." Erin argued with misty eyes, "Like I said, I've been in the game long enough to know how situations like this -like me, are handled."

"No." Bird shook her head, "You know how other people, like Don Falcone, would have handled this situation. Not me. I don't want to kill you, Erin, I want to know why you did what you did and I'm willing to hear you out… so don't be so quick to turn your nose up at that kindness"

Erin's eyes locked with Birds and for the first time since she'd learned Bird was still very much alive, she'd been able to take a deep breath.

"Back when you'd been framed for murder -a couple months after I took your case, my girlfriend, Julia, flew to her homeland of Brazil to visit her parents." Running her tongue over her unusually chapped lips, she continued, "When she flew back the states, she got held up in customs. They're saying she smuggled drugs into the country -I don't know how Galavan did it, but they managed to frame her for it… she was deported and is currently being held in a prison out of the country."

"I got too close to the truth too early." Erin continued, "Connected the right dots at the wrong time and I was about to blow the lid open on Galavan having been the one who framed you -and then next thing I know, Julia is gone and I've got the man I was investigating telling me that I either do everything he tells me too -or I'll never see her again."

Picking up her cloth napkin, Erin blotted at her sweat peppered face and somehow found it in her to keep explaining what had happened.

She'd never considered herself easy to be manipulated -but knowing that Julia's life was hanging in the balance had left her in a state of fear and desperation she'd never experienced before.

"I didn't want to go along with it, but Galavan forced my hand. I respect you and I like you -as I said before Carmine was always good to me. The last thing I wanted to do was see you fall any further, but…" Her jaw tensed while she tried to fight back her emotions, "The love of my life is sitting in some dirty prison cell somewhere, terrified and confused and I thought the only chance I stood at bringing her back home was to do what Galavan said."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Bird stammered out with her entire face contorted with emotion, "If you had just come to me back when all of this happened -if you'd told me…"

"Galavan would have found out and Julia would have payed the price." Erin finished for her, "You're a Wayne and a Falcone and he still got to you. Your best friend was the biggest crime lord in Gotham at the time and it didn't matter. Galavan still got to him and killed his mother."

"I was just trying to protect my Julia." Erin added one last sentiment still not knowing if her honesty would do her situation any good at all, "I'm the one who bends the law until it breaks. I pay off judges and have made my career out of helping criminals walk free. I'm a criminal myself and I guess I always knew it would catch up with me. I just thought it would be a price that I'd pay alone -not her."

"You should have come to me." Bird shook her head; and though there was a tinge of emotion in her tone, her face was stone, "Galavan got to us all. He took something from each and every one of us… but I probably could have taken him down a lot sooner if I wasn't being drugged and hallucinating the entire time we were fighting him."

"I know." She nodded.  
She'd already given her apology and it wouldn't matter how many times she said she was sorry. She was once told that no matter what one needed to apologize for -if the words and thought behind them were sincere, then you only needed to apologize once.

After that it was up to the other person.

Erin watched with terror ridden eyes and her breath painfully caught in her throat when she saw Bird up the gun and stare down to the weapon for seconds that seemed to take as long as the changing of the seasons.

"Thank you for the honesty." Bird glanced across the table at her lawyer before she picked up her purse from the floor and dropped the weapon inside.

"You…" Erin chocked on her own air, "You're letting me live?"

Standing to her feet, Bird quietly said, "Have a good night, Erin."

"Why?" Erin questioned, also getting to her own feet and stopping Bird before she could walk off, "Carmine, well, anyone else in this position would have killed me."

"I'm not him." Bird simply answered.  
Making eye contact she continued, "It's different for us, you know? Being a woman in Gotham. We have to fight twice as hard to gain the power that men have handed to them and we're still not taken seriously. I know exactly how hard you've worked to get to where you are and so I know just how much you're hating yourself for letting someone play off your emotions to weaken you into submission."

Readjusting her stance, Bird pointed back towards the table they'd shared a meal at and said with an arched brow, "The fact that you had the balls to come here and admit what you've done all while thinking your punishment would be certain death. That takes courage, Erin. And aside from doing Galavan's bidding… you did everything you could to help me. I have no idea what comes next, but I do know that you're smart and capable and if I need a lawyer and an ally that you're the one I'd want in my corner."

Nodding and showing more emotion on her perfectly made-up face than Bird had ever seen before, Erin gratefully and eagerly nodded, "Thank you."

"I think it goes without saying that if you ever cross me again -you will pay in blood." Bird said as she turned and started for the stairs.

Swallowing hard and knowing that she now owed Bird her life and wouldn't do anything to jeopardize the second chance she'd gotten, Erin called after her, "It should have been you running Gotham; not Penguin. This city needs someone exactly like you in charge."

••• **days later** **•••**

"Butch!" Victor Zsasz greeted with a wide smile, "Long time no see."

Butch's breath rushed in and out of his lungs with a near violent speed as his eyes darted all around the room and took in the carnage that was left of his guards.

Every person who'd stayed from Penguin's crew to work for him when he took over the throne of the crime world was dead.

The only ones left alive was himself and Tabitha; who'd been beaten rather severely right in front of him and was now tied to a chair with her mouth gagged.

Tabitha was still fighting against her restraints, yelling angrily against the thick cloth she'd been gagged with and silenced by.  
Finally slowing her movements to take a breath, she looked over to Butch with a thick trail of blood running down the side of her face as her neck let her head hang weakly to the side.

Butch's gaze then traveled around the room to all of the armed men and women who'd just blown through the mansion like a bullet filled tornado and then back to Zsasz as he silently wondered who he was working for now that Penguin was locked away in Arkham.

"This city's really going to hell." Bird sighed as she entered from the hallway and took care to step over the body of man who'd had half of skull blown to bits, "Have you seen the news lately? There is a man running around the city, like literally turning people into ice-"

"Mr. Freeze." Victor chimed in with the name that the newspapers had donned the freeze ray gun criminal with.

"That's right." Bird nodded before turning her attention back to Butch and adding, "And then you're running the crime world now? No wonder the city's continuing a descent into chaos."

"Bird?" Butch stammered.  
He'd heard the rumors that she was still alive. Several news outlets had even reported on the matter, but it was one of those things you needed to see to believe.

And here she stood right in front of him.

"What's the matter, Butch?" Victor loudly teased when he saw the still shocked expression on his face, "You look like you've seen a ghost."

Bird gave a small laugh before clearing her throat and nodding to crew who'd cleared the way for her entrance; everyone except Zsasz filed out of the room.

"What is this, huh?" Butch questioned eyeing her, "Penguins gone and now you want to take over?"

"He's not gone." Bird's voice strained through her tensed jaw, "Just temporarily indisposed."

She'd been trying since the day Oswald had been transferred to Arkham to get in contact with him. But the new head of psychiatry, Hugo Strange, hadn't cleared her friend for any visitors -or even phone calls yet.

"And… nah… you can keep this place. I don't care." She shrugged looking around the mansion that she'd once lived in with Oswald when she, herself, had gotten out of Arkham.

"Then what is this?" Butch pushed, growing more uncomfortable by the second.

"I've been tying up loose ends since I've been back." Bird shrugged, "And Victor's been bored."

With his smile growing, Victor walked across the room and pointed his gun at the back of Tabitha's head.  
She started struggling against her restraints all over again and Butch started for her, but Bird aimed a gun of her own at him and said, "I wouldn't do that."

"Don't!" He pleaded with sweat beading across his reddened face, "Don't hurt her!"

"Wow…" Bird breathed, motioning between Tabitha and Butch with her gun she looked to Victor and commented, "That happened fast, right?"

"It did." Victor agreed.

"Besides… why would I hurt her?" Bird hummed as she drummed a finger against her chin, "Oh, that's right; maybe because she shot and nearly killed me or would it because she stabbed Gertrud Kapelput in the back. Ooh, it might be on the count of how she hurt Alfred and was ready to watch my brother be sacrificed by some freaky warrior monks. Really, Butch, the list of reasons she deserves to die just goes on and on."

"So you just came here to kill us then, is that it?" He asked.

"I thought about it." She openly admitted, "In fact you were one of the first loose ends I wanted tied up."

Butch silently looked her over, thinking of how much she reminded him of Fish in the way in which she carried herself.  
She'd made one hell of an entrance and if there was anything Fish Mooney wasn't fond of -it was loose ends."

"You remind me so much of her, you know." His tongue finally found it's ability to form words in the life or death situation he was facing down.

He didn't even have to say Fish's name for Bird to know who he was talking about.

"No." Bird shook her head, "Fish let herself become entirely consumed in coming after Oswald, her thirst for revenge is what killed her. I got her out of Gotham, did you know that? The night Zsasz captured you and Fish escaped. I gave her shelter and money and then called on someone she trusted to get her out of the city. She could have lived if she'd just stayed away. But she couldn't -that's just not who she was. She couldn't let anything go and that was her downfall."

"I'm not going to kill you Butch." She finally said as she brazenly walked up to him where he could have easily gotten her with the rotating drill bit attachment he now wore where his hand used to be, "It didn't work out so well the last time I tried -and anyways, we have all lost something or someone important to us."

Pausing for a brief moment, Bird nodded in Tabitha's direction and added, "Even Tabby over there."

"I'm going to let you live." She continued, "I'll even let you keep your little psycho girlfriend-"

"Bird!" Zsasz complained.

"Don't be cross, Victor." Bird shushed him.

"Yeah and whats the catch?" Butch pushed.

"Nothing much." She shrugged, "You can keep playing the king -but we both know it isn't for you. You'll always be a sidekick, but sure, have your fun playing number one for now and I need a favor from Tabitha."

Butch's eyebrows lowered.  
Was this was nothing more than a show of force and to remind him of his place?

"Victor." Bird nodded to him and he roughly jerked on the gag and pulled it from Tabitha's mouth on command.

"What-" Licking her dry lips and fighting for air Tabitha asked, "What do you want from me?"

Walking over to where she was tied up, Bird explained, "A while back your brother… or you, maybe both of you - I'm not sure, but someone had Julia Silva framed for smuggling drugs and she's currently wasting away in a prison somewhere outside of the states."

"Uh-huh." Tabitha nodded.

"I want her released and brought back home safely with any and all charges dropped so she can pick back up where her life left off so many months ago." Bird explained.

"How am I supposed-"

"I don't know and I don't care." Bird cut her off, "But lets hope it's something you can figure out and fast because those are my conditions for letting you live. Julia's safe return. Do we have a deal?"

Tabitha glanced over to where Butch was still standing, staring at her and waiting on her to agree to the terms.

The moment she'd seen Bird enter the room, she thought for sure she was a goner.  
This was far more kindness than she'd expected to have been shown after all she'd done; far more than she thought she'd be capable of if the tables were turned.

"Deal." Tabitha finally spat out through her gritted teeth.

••• **the next week •••**

"Erin?" Bird asked surprised when she entered the sitting room where Alfred had just told her she had a visitor waiting.

Turning to face her, Erin eyed her workout clothing and watched as Bird got to work on removing the boxing tape from her hands as she commented, "You just don't know how to take it easy, do you?"

With a small chuckle Bird admitted, "Oh, no… I'm fine with taking it easy, my brother however thinks we can't call it a day until I've completely exhausted myself training him."

"Training him for what?" Erin asked.  
She knew Bird had been teaching him to fight when she was worried about Galavan coming after him, but that threat was gone now. Galavan was dead.

With a shrug, Bird didn't offer up any more information and instead turned the line of questioning around on her, "What are you doing here?"

"Get cleaned up." Erin stated, "I'm taking you shopping."

"Shopping?" Bird nearly choked on the breath of air she'd been pulling in. With her face twisting up in confusion she pushed, "Shopping for what?"

"Clothes." Her lawyer said, quickly holding up a hand to silence the protest she was sure was going to follow and said, "Julia's been back for a few days. I'm not sure what you did, but whatever it was -it worked and I'm forever in your debt. Thank you."

Erin's gaze fell to the floor for a moment while she composed herself.  
As much of a relief as it was to have her girlfriend back safe and sound, she wasn't sure if their relationship was going to survive.

The woman who returned to Gotham was a far cry from the person she'd known and loved.  
Maybe all it would take was some time. After all, she had no idea what Julia had been through and she'd been less than willing to open up about her time away in a foreign prison.

Either way, she was home now and for the first time in what felt like years, Erin had been able to sleep through the night.

"You're welcome." Bird simply replied, her eyebrows furrowing when she caught the sadness in her eyes.

"My point is that you helped me -when you didn't have to and it's not exactly like I deserved it. I owe you and so I'm here to start paying it forward-"

"By taking me shopping?" Bird interrupted.

"Bird…" Erin sighed with a shake of her head, "Do you have any idea how many offers we've gotten from new stations and papers wanting to do interviews? The public loves a comeback story and you came back from the dead. You've got a new lease on life and I don't know what you tend to do with your second chance -but I do know that if you want to be taken seriously you need to dress the part."

"But-" Bird started to cut her off with an argument about how she didn't much care what everyone thought of her.  
These were the same people that had been so fast to turn on her when she'd been framed for murder months back.

"You are a twenty-something socialite from Gotham's wealthiest family and while this whole-" Motioning to Bird as she added, "Street look might have been cute when you were a teenager, you're an adult now. Time to grow up. Time to dress the part."

Bird's mouth hung open as her mind flooded with thoughts, all of which were competing to be spoken first but no argument came out.

Erin had a point, despite her fondness of privacy, Bird had been repeatedly thrust into the spotlight and that didn't appear to be changing anytime soon.

"I don't think you realize what a golden opportunity this is." Erin pushed her to understand, "Up until recently your name has been painted in a negative light when it came to the news and opinion of the city, but now after everything Galavan did came to light and everyone thought you died…"

"Funny isn't it?" Bird jumped in, "How when someone dies all of the bad is magically forgotten."

"You don't understand." Erin sighed, "Just two years ago your parents were gunned down in an ally. You've been wrongfully imprisoned for crimes you didn't commit. Add onto that everything you suffered at the hands of Galavan and then everyone thinking that you died… your story is one of survival. One of hope. You've been given the opportunity to completely bend the public's opinion in your favor. You're Gotham's sweetheart."

Bird might not have realized how big of a chance this was yet, but Erin knew this was huge.  
The Wayne name already made her a public figure and now with her recent struggles and how she'd overcome so much, this was truly her chance to start building something for herself.

Now being seen in such a positive light and even being a symbol of hope to some, Bird could make a real difference in the city.

Taking a step closer to her and lowering her voice, Erin reminded her, "It wasn't so long ago that you were talking to me about how outraged you were that there wasn't many options or much help available to the women who'd been rescued from the auction houses, remember that?"

When Bird slowly nodded, Erin pointed out, "You have the means to effect real change and create of beacon of light in this shadowed city. I'm talking change on the same level that your parents were responsible for. Even if you don't feel up to that right now -don't squander this chance, okay?"

"Okay." Bird agreed with a heavy sigh.

"Good." Erin smiled, "So, first things first; get you an all new wardrobe and get something done to that hair of yours and then we're going to start vetting news stations for the best option for you to give your first interview to."

 **•••**

* * *

 **A/N- Thanks for reading! I know Bird didn't have much interaction with the Gotham characters this chapter, but I still hope you enjoyed it all the same.  
I'm getting close to the part of season 2 that I've been looking forward to writing! ^_^  
**

 **I'd really like to thank Love. Fiction. 2017, PetrovaLover, Rasiel Hasu, Shadow knight1121, xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, DancingDorisDay, DancingDorisDay, Katniss789, SmellYourScentForMiles, Guest, Munyue, Melody Jane, Caroline, Amelia, Guest, Guest and JimmyHall24 for reviewing since my last update.**


	20. Sin-Eater

**XX**

 _"You can get much further with a kind word and a gun then you can with a kind word alone" - Al Capone_

* * *

•••

"Miss Wayne."

Bird's posture stiffened some as she rose from where she'd been knelt down in front of the engraved headstone at Oswald's mother's grave.

She'd only been there a few minutes and had just laid the bouquet of spring lilies down on the green grass when the peaceful calm in that section of the cemetery had been interrupted.

"Hello, Ed." Bird greeted back as she stood to her feet and looked over her shoulder to the approaching man.

With a small nod, he stepped up beside her before leaning down to place a much smaller and simpler arrangement of lilies next to the one Bird had left.

When she turned to him with a confused expression on her face, he stared forward and explained, "Oswald asked me to visit her grave and bring flowers. Lilies were her favorite."

"I know they were." Bird unintentionally snapped, before the rest of his sentence fully sank in and she stammered, "Wait, you got to talk to Oswald? When? I've been trying to get on the visitors list for Arkham, but he's not allowed to see anyone and-"

Cutting her near frantic ramblings off, Nygma explained, "No. I was only able to speak to him for a short time at the precinct before he was transferred to Arkham Asylum."

"Oh…" She breathed, letting the disapointment show on her face before she turned back and stared down to the headstone.

Oswald had spent longer in Arkham than she'd expected him too, but instead of accepting the help she'd tried to send him via the hiring of defense attorneys -he'd instead, given a full confession when he'd been arrested for Galavan's murder.

"Well." Bird cleared her throat, "I'm sure Oswald asked you to bring Gertrud flowers because he thought I wasn't sticking around Gotham, but I've since changed my mind. So, thank you, but I'll make sure her grave is tended to."

Nygma glanced over at her before pushing his glasses back up on his nose and admitting, "I'm sensing some anger."

"You told him he was better off with me dead!" Bird exclaimed, tossing her arms out to the sides and letting drop heavily at her sides, "That he was better off with his his mother dead too. You weren't there, Ed. I was. I watched his mother die in his arms and then I saw the same look on his face the day I was shot and he thought he was going to lose to me too."

"Okay, um…" He breathed with an awkward laugh, before holding his hands up in front of him and moving them as he spoke, "What causes a sudden increase in heart rate, a loss of memory and overall brain function, but is not a drug?"

With a small sigh Bird rubbed her forehead. When their paths has crossed in the past she'd always been game to play along and guess at the answer to his riddles, but she'd not gotten much sleep the night before and was already stressing about the upcoming interview with a news station that Erin was working on getting coordinated.

"Ed…"

Usually, he wasn't the best at picking up on other people's moods and cues.  
Probably was part of the reason everyone at the GCPD seemed annoyed the second he opened his mouth, but defeat was written all over her face and even he couldn't miss it.

"Love, Miss Wayne." Nygma cut her off, "The answer is love. For some it's a source of strength, but for others, Oswald for example, it can be crippling."

"You're wrong." Bird argued with him, "Loss is crippling."

"You are a weakness for him-"

"Look…" Bird interrupted, "Last I knew, you and I were on good terms. I even called you a friend and I'm not sure where that changed -but even if what you're saying is true, sorry for the upset but I'm very much alive and intend to remain that way for the foreseeable future."

With that, she spun on her new heels and started to walk away and leave him there until he called after her, "No, you don't understand. I'm happy you're alive. I -I was saddened by your loss."

Turning back around Bird's expression was twisted up in confusion while her sluggish thought process felt like she'd been hit with whiplash. If he'd truly been upset over her death then why on earth would he have went on to convince her best friend that he was better off without her.

Scanning their surroundings to make sure no one was in ear shot of their conversation, Nygma walked closer to where Bird stood and admitted, "You see, I've killed three people and these murders… they changed me. I knew I couldn't go back to the person I was before it happened and I found myself in need of some guidance and you have killed many people."

"Unfortunately, you died before I could reach out." He reasoned, but then smiled as he added, "Fortunately, I happened to stumble upon Oswald at the right time to save his life and in return he's helped guide me on my new path."

Bird was silent as she stared up to his face and noticed just how proud he seemed of himself for the three lives he'd taken.

Crazy wasn't really a word she tossed around lightly anymore and she could handle the slightly unhinged members of society very well, but as she stared at him, all she could think was that he'd entirely lost his mind.

She knew he was capable of violence, after all, it was just the year before that she'd witnessed him kill an officer and finished her night by helping him dispose of the body.  
But from what she'd understood, the man he'd killed had abusive to the woman he claimed to be in love with, but this was a side of him she wasn't familiar with.

It was as though a switch had been flipped inside him and he wasn't even the same person she'd known before.

Her eyes widened slightly when the realization fully dawned on her of what must have caused such a shift in his mentality.

"Miss Kringle." Bird recalled the name of the redhead employed as the record keeper at the police station, "She's dead. You killed her, didn't you?"

"How did you-" He started to ask, wondering if for whatever reason, Oswald had told her that.

"I heard some talk about her running off with Officer Dougherty, but considering we dismembered his dead body in an old warehouse last year…" Bird shrugged, "Well, two and two adds up to four."

A smile spread over his lips as he agreed, Indeed, it does."

"So that's what caused this-" She motioned at him, "Change in you."

"She was the love of my life." Nygma stated, "I owe this all to her. Miss Kringle's death is what made me whole."

With her lips pressed into a thin line and her cheeks slightly puffed out, Bird slowly nodded along with him though she found herself throwing the word crazy around inside of her head all over again.

"Well, word of advice. This might be Gotham, but it's still not the brightest idea to walk around bragging about how many people you killed and considering your ties to Miss Kringle, if anyone gets suspicious about the runaway story, you're automatically going to be a suspect… so you know, maybe don't offer up so much information out in public." Bird left him with a parting of advice, before offering a less than sincere smile and a small nod as she turned to walk away.

"Roger that." Nygma called after her. Staying in place and watching her until she disappeared from his line of sight.

He was no idiot.  
He wouldn't dare tell the truth of what happened to just anyone; he knew she was one of the least likely people to snitch on anyone at all.

In fact, he'd learned a great deal about Bird while Oswald was staying with him after he'd nursed him back to health.

He'd learned a great deal about Jim Gordon too.  
Like how he was the one who'd actually pulled the trigger and killed Galavan.

Such information was currently being threaded into a master plan of how to take Detective Gordon down.  
The detective had been asking questions about Kristen Kringle's whereabouts and it seemed like every time Jim opened his mouth it was another test; trying to catch him in a lie or make him slip up about the crimes he'd committed.

That couldn't happen.  
He was smarter than the entirety of the GCPD, but he also knew Jim wouldn't let any case go until he'd found the truth.

The only feasible solution was to entirely discredit Jim Gordon, that way even if he did stumble onto the truth, not a soul would believe him.

•••

Bird walked into her room at Wayne Manor and slowed to a stop almost immediately.

Someone had been in there.

Her eyes darted back and forth across the room she'd grown up and now been staying in since she'd been back in Gotham.

Alfred knew the rules, he was only allowed to dust around her possessions and not move anything and Bruce had never been one to go snooping around in a place that didn't belong to him.

Almost on cue her phone rang and when she saw her little brother's name on the screen, she flipped it open, "Bruce? Where are you?"

"I'm at the hospital with Alfred." He answered, barely taking a minute to pull in a breath before blurting out, "He's hurt, but the doctors say he's going to make a full recovery."

"A recovery from what?" She asked, raising her voice when she didn't get an answer, "From what, little brother?"

"A fight." Bruce solemnly admitted, "We tracked down one of Malone's former crime partners and nothing went according to plan."

He didn't have time to tell her all the details nor did he wish so soon to rehash how the entire thing had been his fault because he hadn't listened to Alfred and kept his mouth shut.

So he'd been forced to stand idly to the side while Alfred fought a man twice his size and got beaten severely to gain the information they'd been seeking.

"Stay at the hospital. I'm on way." Bird instructed almost entirely forgetting about how items had been moved around in her room.

"I can't do that." Bruce's voice shook with emotion, "I'm sorry, Starling."

"Sorry… you're sorry for what?" Her tone grew frantic, "Listen to me, you stay there-"

"I have to finish what we've started."  
He answered before the line went to dead silence.

Bird darted over to her closet and jerked the closet door open, when she saw the decorative hat boxes up on the shelf were out of sorts her heart started to race wildly in her chest.

Knocking every single box off the shelf, Bird dropped into a seated position on the floor and started opening them in search of the weapons she'd been keeping there.

"Damn it, Bruce." She muttered, closing her eyes and forcing a breath into her lungs after seeing one of the handguns was missing.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it!" Her voice came out in a shriek that echoed through the entire house as she jumped to her feet and angrily started kicking the boxes around her room in a fit of rage.

Muttering to herself, Bird picked up one of the other loaded guns and tucked it into the waistband of her pants before heading down to the garage to borrow one of the many cars the family owned.

•••

"Well, that took you long enough." Alfred complained when Bullock and Jim entered his hospital room.

Straining through the pain he managed to raise up some to speak the the detectives.

"For a butler, you sure do get beat up a lot." Bullock commented.

"What happened?" Jim demanded to know, his eyebrows furrowing at all of the bruises and dried blood caked on Alfred's face.

Alfred opened his mouth to start filling them on how they'd taken it upon themselves to track down the man who'd killed Thomas and Martha Wayne, but before he could loud voices spilled into the room from the hallway.

" _I'm sorry you can't go in there, miss. The police are-"_

" _I don't care what GCPD is up to these days. He's family and I dare you to try and stop me from going there again."_

"Ah." Alfred remarked, "I believe Lady Wayne has arrived."

"I'm glad you're okay." Bird angrily yelled at Alfred once the nurse opened the door and Bird stormed into the room.

"Yes, well, your tone says otherwise." Alfred cringed as he tried to readjust in the bed once again.

"I'm sorry." She huffed, "But this is bad. This is really bad."

"What's really bad?" Bullock questioned, offering up a titled smile when she finally looked at him and added, "Hiya."

"I thought you were leaving Gotham." Jim couldn't hold his silence as he took a few steps out away from the wall he'd been leaned against and looked to her with an expectant expression on his face with visible traces of pain.

He wasn't about to bring it up now -he probably never would, but since they'd last seen each other the night when he'd killed Galavan he'd had tried to call her more than once.

He'd been rather lucky to have been fully reinstated as a detective after everything that had happened and even though Barnes didn't seem to believe his version of events for the night and Oswald had backed Jim's story and taken the full credit for putting a stop to the nightmare that was Theo Galavan.

But it wasn't as though everything was getting back to normal in his life, in fact it was very far from it.

Living with knowing he'd murdered someone was tougher than he'd expected.  
Even when he'd ended up having to shoot and kill Ogden Barker to collect a debt for Oswald, he could write it off as self-defense; but this was different.

Galavan had been entirely unarmed and handcuffed when Jim made the decision to pull the trigger.

He'd lied to everyone about what had happened that night -even to Lee.  
Which had caused what felt like round after round of one disagreement after another without an end in sight.

There were only four people the knew the whole truth of the events that had taken place that night; one of them was dead, one was serving time in Arkham, one had swore they were leaving the city, and then there was him.

He who'd been more haunted by it then he'd ever expected to be and without a single person close to him who understood what had happened.

No one had been there to assure him he'd made the right decision or remind just how much Galavan deserved the end he received.

On the darkest nights, usually when he'd had a little too much to drink and closed himself off from Lee after a fight was when he'd tried to call Bird, but she'd never answered the phone.

"I'm sorry." She softly said, giving him an apologetic look knowing very well that she'd ignored every time he'd tried to reach out to her, but didn't offer up an answer to his question.

Bird couldn't pin point exactly why she'd not taken the calls whenever his name would show on her phone screen.  
Maybe it was that she'd been too busy to stop and stand still for a moment or possibly even that she was really trying to move on with her life after everything that happened.

Perhaps she felt it would muck up the waters all once again if they started to get any closer.

Pulling her line of sight away from his, Bird cleared her throat and looked back to Alfred as she repeated again, "This is really bad."

"You don't think I know that, Lady Wayne?" Alfred's temper was short.

"Is one of you gonna fill us in on whats going on here -or are we supposed to play twenty questions?" Bullock asked, looking between them.

"We got a name." Alfred finally said, "The name of the man who shot and killed Thomas and Martha Wayne."

"Matches Malone." Bird nodded.

Jim's mouth hung open at the newly learned information.

 _A name?_  
In all of the time he'd spent investigating the murders, he'd never gotten anywhere close to finding a shaky lead, let alone something as solid as a name.

"Dude, we're the cops!" Bullock exclaimed, "Thank you for sharing this with us. When were you going to tell us this?"

"Never." Bird openly admitted at the very same time Alfred sighed, "I haven't got time to explain this right now."

"The point is, is that we got a good solid lead from the same place that I got seven bells knocked out of me. Now Bruce, he won't answer his phone, so my guess is that he's gone after Malone… solo."

"Gone after?" Jim managed to pick his jaw up off the floor and contribute the conversation, "To do what exactly?"

"What can he do? He's a kid." Bullock chimed in, causing both Alfred and Bird to roll their eyes at just how little the detective knew Bruce Wayne.

"Really, Bullock?" Bird's eyebrow arched, "This guy shot out parents to death right in front of my brother and you really can't put two and two together here?"

"Only one reason to go alone." Alfred nodded, "He's going to kill him."

Jim rubbed a hand over his face and turned away for a moment to look out of the window into the midday sun.  
This was the very reason he hadn't wanted Bruce to take it upon himself to try and solve the case.

He wouldn't be approaching it from any other angle then wanting revenge.

"I mean, I-I told him not to. I said, _you're too young for killing_. Said I'd do it for him." Alfred quickly added in his own defense.

"Yeah." Bird backed his story, "We were all in agreement that when we found this Malone, either Alfred or I would kill him and Bruce agreed to the plan."

With his hands on his hips, Bullock leaned forward slightly and shook his head, "Again, we're the cops… don't tell us stuff like this."

Seeming to not hear him, Bird looked to Alfred and complained, "Speaking of the plan. The plan was that we're all in this together and next thing I know I come home to empty house and Bruce calling to tell me you've both gone and tracked down a lead and now you're laying in a hospital bed. What happened to the plan, Alfred?"

"What happened-" He scoffed, raising up in the bed, "What happened to the plan, Lady Wayne, is that you've been gone all hours of the day and night, off doing god knows what with god knows who, and if we'd waited on you this would have taken years!"

"I've been busy, Alfred." Bird defended, "I've had Victor Zsasz helping me track and eliminate any and all of Galavan's remaining associates, but if you'd just called me-"

"Hey!" Bullock interrupted her and looked between them with a still shocked expression. Motioning between himself and Jim he repeated, "Cops, remember?"

Jim looked back over at Bird, he wasn't sure what was more surprising; the fact that she'd stayed in Gotham when she seemed so sure about her choice to leave or that she'd been apparently living at Wayne Manor, when she'd made it a point to say she'd moved out the day she turned eighteen and never looked back.

"This is not a game, you have to understand that, the both of you!" Alfred said to the detectives, "You have to find him."

"I understand." Jim gruffly agreed, before asking, "Where was Bruce going?"

"We were told to go and speak to a Jeri on the East Side… a place called Celestial Gardens, I believe." Alfred forced himself to remember the information they'd gotten from the fight just before he blacked out after the severe beating he'd endured, "This Jeri is supposed to lead us to Matches."

"Celestial Gardens?" Bird repeated back the name of the place that no one else in the room seemed to know, before muttering, "Damn it."

"Damn it?" Bullock echoed, "I don't like that sound of that -damn it, damn it what?"

"Celestial Gardens." Bird said as if it should mean something but no one else was catching on.

"It's one of those night clubs that started opening up when Jerome and the Maniax were running around the city." She sighed, "So you can imagine the kind of people that frequent the place."

She still couldn't understand how Jerome's time in Gotham had left such a lasting impact on the city, but she was still dealing with being approached by oddly dressed strangers in the street.

Some of them would just stare at her, while others repeated back the very words he'd spoke to her during the children's hospital benefit -others were even brazen enough to ask to see the scars from where he'd stabbed and cut her.

Bird turned to leave the room but all three men yelled after her stop, when she turned around with steamed expression, Jim said, "Tell us exactly where this Celestial Gardens is located."

"I don't think so, Jim." Bird shook her head.

"You can't just go running off on your own-" Bullock cut in, but Bird wasn't too keen on listening to him either, "He's my brother and while I thank you for the concern, I'll find him and bring him home -on my own."

"Lady Wayne." Alfred scolded.  
He knew she was always the type to run off by herself to get a job done, but this was her little brother's life at stake and he couldn't understand why she'd be turning down help from two detectives that she held a degree of trust in.

"No, Alfred!" Bird snapped right back, "You should have never called the police in the first place."

"We all want the same thing here." Jim held up his hands, "Stop Bruce from doing something he'll regret and bring him home safe."

Knowing from the expression on her face that she was holding something back, Alfred ordered, "Come on then, out with it. What aren't you telling us."

"He's got a gun." Bird dropped her arms to her sides with the admission, "He stole it from my room and now he's ran off to kill someone -and all of us might want to bring him home safe… but there is no way that you're able to guarantee me that if some other cop sees an armed teenager that they aren't going to shoot first and ask questions later."

Knowing that the only way she could make sure her brother wouldn't end up hurt or worse, Bird knew that she needed to stay several steps ahead of the police -several steps ahead of Jim.

"So go on. Call in the cavalry and organize a city wide search -while you're doing that, I'm going to find my brother and kill Matches Malone." She spoke with gravel in her voice before turning and fleeing the room despite the symphony of voices echoing after her to stop.

•••

Bird made her way into the club and blinked trying to adjust her eyes to the lighting. The sides of the large main room were shadowed and dark, while club lighting machines had blinding rays of light jumping and changing directions rapidly.

There was a small stage towards the front of the room with a backdrop screen playing old news footage covering the Maniax terror streak over the city, then flashing into the self-made footage Jerome had filmed of himself after the attack on the police station that had claimed Essen's life.

Quotes from the deceased maniac were flashing over the video reel and Bird slowed to a stop as the screen changed to taped footage of the broadcast from the children s hospital gala.

Soon the entire screen was a moving picture of her tied to that wheel on the stage with Jerome standing out in front on the microphone.  
There wasn't any audio to it, but she could remember precisely what he said. He was trying to lure Bruce out of hiding and she knew exactly what the film would show next -when Jerome turned to her with a knife intending to draw her brother out by hurting her.

With a sigh, Bird pulled her eyes away from the screen and suddenly became aware of all of the eyes on her.

Everyone who'd been dancing around to the music blaring through the speakers were now all stopped and staring directly at her.

"I'm looking for Jeri." Bird yelled out to anyone who'd listen.

Slowly the crowd of people started to separate -opening up a pathway leading to where they small bar was located.

Bird's eyes darted suspiciously at every single person she walked by as she followed down the parted path.  
Once she reached the bar she saw a small hallway off to the side with a door closed at the end.

She looked over her shoulder to see everyone was still watching her and held her breath as she hurried towards the closed door and threw it open to reveal an woman sitting at a dressing room vanity touching up the blood red lipstick that she'd used to cover a much bigger area around her mouth than just her lips.

"There you are." Jeri said as she caught sight of the younger woman in the mirror, "You just missed your little brother."

Spinning around in her seat, she flashed Bird a wide smile and complimented, "Well spoken kid."

Bird's eyes traveled over the white face paint and dark red and black shadows around her eyes, before nodding, "Indeed he is."

"Where did he go?" Bird pushed.

"My guess is he's off to kill Matches. Little dude had a loaded gun and everything." She laughed.

"Where is Matches?" Bird sighed.

"What? What was that?" Jeri teased, cupping a hand behind her ear and playing as though she wasn't able to hear what was asked from her, "Don't think I heard the magic word in there…"

"Please!" Bird yelled angrily, "Will you please tell me where my brother ran off to?"

"Nah." Jeri laughed, clearly enjoying getting under Bird's skin, "What's in it for me?"

"What do you want?" Bird asked, "What did my brother give you?"

"The truth." Jeri explained, "He told me exactly why he wanted to find Matches and what he was gonna do when he found him."

"You want the truth?" Bird bellowed, "Fine, the truth is that you're wasting my time while I'm trying to stop my brother from doing something that he can't ever take back."

Standing up, Jeri adjusted her handmade outfit complete with the same straps found on straight-jackets and asked, "Is that fear I'm seeing?"

"You're afraid." She accused jotting a finger in the center of Bird's chest, "Tell me. Bird. What are you so afraid of."

Bird swallowed hard and admitted something out loud that she'd been holding in for a long time, "That my brother and I may be more alike than I thought. I'm afraid of him turning into me -and he's still so young. I just don't want him doing something now that could alter the course of the rest of his life."

"Interesting." Jeri hummed, "Say you get there before the clean-up, before he does this thing that you think he'll regret. What are you going to do?"

"Kill Matches Malone."

"I love it!" Jeri broke out into another fit of laughter, "The amount of honesty your both willing to share with a stranger. You don't see too much of that nowadays."

"Are you going to tell me where-" Bird started to ask but was cut off, "So the plan is that you're going to kill Matches to save Bruce from living with a kill on his conscience?"

"Yes." Bird stated.

"I…" Jeri breathed stepping up and getting in Bird's face, "I know what you are. You're a sin-eater."

Bird's dimples showed as she laughed and nearly choked, "I'm a what?"

"A sin-eater." Jeri repeated, running her tongue over her painted red lips before stepping back and dropping back into the seat at her vanity.

Kicking off from the floor, she spun the chair around until she was facing the mirror, where she eyed Bird for a moment before she got back to touching up the powder white make-up covering her skin.

"You know, a sin-eater." Jeri repeated, glancing back at Bird's reflection as she spoke, "You know, you absorb the sins of people around you. Darken your own soul to keep theirs all pearly white."

Pointing with the end of her red lip liner pencil, Jeri spun back to around to face her, "You're a rarer bird than I thought, Bird."

"Are you going to tell me where you sent my brother running off to or not?" Bird nearly huffed, growing increasingly irritated from their encounter.

The clock was running out. Her brother was out there, probably minutes away from killing someone and the last thing she had time to do was be jerked around by one of Jerome's zealots.

"Matches lives in that big building on Grand Street between 9th and 10th street." Looking her own one last time she added, "Apartment 9B."

"Thank you." Bird nodded and turned to leave but one of the clubs workers unintentionally blocked her path when he entered the room and said, "GCPD is here. Gordon just walked in."

With a heavy breath of annoyance, Bird dropped her head back and stared up at the ceiling.  
She knew he was just doing his job and that he probably wanted to stop Bruce from murdering someone just as bad as she did, but this was _her_ fight and _her_ brother she was trying to save.

"Don't worry." Jeri called out at seeing Bird's reaction, "We'll stall him."

Pulling in a breath and seeing no other option than to trust Jeri, Bird nodded and slid past the man who'd just came into the room.

Standing to her feet, Jeri smiled widely at her worker and announced, "Showtime!"  
She'd always wanted to meet the infamous James Gordon and now seemed a perfect time as ever.

Bird made her way past the bar and out onto the dance floor. The music playing through the speakers was much slower than when she'd entered the club.

Instead of dancing and jumping around wildly, most of the club's patrons were swaying around as if they were all in a trance.

She caught a glimpse of the screen behind the stage which was now displaying scans of various newspapers articles and Jerome's mugshot.

Bird pushed her way between a small group of people dancing together with no sense of personal space and when she emerged from the other side she ended up face-to-face with Jim.

"Bird!" He called out, just barely catching her arm when she tried to dart off towards the exit, "You can't do this on your own. Let me help you."

"I'm sorry, Jim." She apologized, "But that's my little brother out there and I need to get to him before..." Her voice decrescendoed into silence when she picked up on her own slip of the tongue.

With furrowed brows he realized, "You got an address. You know where Bruce is headed."

"I do." She admitted.  
Bird pulled her arm from his grip and stated, "But I have to go it alone, Jim."

"Listen to me." He pleaded, "You have to understand that I can't let you do this. You and Alfred and Bruce, you can't just take the law into your own hands-"

His words were cut short when a blinding spotlight was cast on them from the stage.  
Looking up they saw Jeri holding the bright light as she screamed into the microphone, "GCPD 1-2-3-4!"

At the end of her count the band came to live with fast paced drum beats and the crowd responded by moshing together and screaming in excitement.

Jim had just started to turn his attention back to Bird when two men grabbed him and lifted him up in the air.

"HEY!" He yelled, but his fighting against them was pointless.

Within seconds he'd been hoisted up into the air and was being passed along by countless sets of hands and no way to get out of the forced crowd surfing.

By the time he'd been moved to where he could see the back of the room again -Bird was nowhere to be found.

•••

Bruce's eyes adjusted in the dim lighting in the hallway of the old apartment building.

Pulling a deep breath in, he raised his fist to knock on the door, but just before he could made contact a hand wrapped around his wrist and stopped him.

With a small gasp he looked over to see his sister as she still had a painfully tight grip on him.

Trying to pull away, Bruce whisper yelled, "Starling, let go of me."

"Where's the gun, huh?" She spoke in a hushed tone, keeping an iron tight grip on his wrist and using her other hand to pat at his pockets in the clothes he'd changed into that would help him look less out of place in the part of town that Matches lived in.

He'd learned from Selina that he couldn't wear his usual style clothes in the rough parts of town without either drawing attention to himself or making himself a target.

"Stop it!" He hissed, trying to jerk away from her, but in no time she'd pulled the gun out of his pocket and then pushed him back.

Nearly falling over, he grabbed onto the wall to keep from going all the way down to the floor.

His cheeks were immediately touched by fire with his entire expression coming to life with rage.  
This was the moment he'd been waiting for.  
The very thing he'd been training and obsessing over and in his mind she had no right to try and take that away from him.

"I have to do this!" He did his best to keep his voice low, "For what this… monster did to our family. For mom and dad-"

"It's just us in this hallway right now, so let's be entirely open and honest -shall we?" Bird arched a brow and didn't leave any open room for him to reply, "Killing him won't bring them back, Bruce. The last thing on earth that either of our parents would have wanted to see is you being so consumed with the need for revenge that you lose all of the values that they instilled in you."

He opened his mouth to argue; tongue at the ready to hurl some truths her way.  
Like how he felt she was being the biggest hypocrite on earth, but he couldn't seem to make a sound.

Bird looked down to the gun and then back to her brother's face as she thought of how his features were the perfect mix of their parents likeness.

Their father had always been adamant that they make their own decisions when it came down to it. He'd tried to teach them both how to see a problem from all sides and choose the best course of action to deal with it.

Something Bird was sure he probably regretted when her choices had led her down a path of crime.

She'd been so caught up in seeing all of the ways that her brother was mirroring her that along the way she hadn't thought near as much about how much of their parents still lived on through him; her little brother who wasn't so little anymore.

Her breath hitched in her throat as she forced herself to take a hard look at him and how much he'd grown since the night he'd watched their parents be murdered right in front of him.

Bruce wasn't a child anymore.  
He was far more grown than she wanted to admit and even further past the point of needing her to make decisions for him.

"Here." She cleared her throat as she presented the gun to him, "We made a deal that we were in this together. So however the night ends…" Her voice trailed off, "You need to be honest with yourself -that killing him is something you're doing for yourself and not for mom and dad. Stop using them as an excuse."

A shaky breath rattled his lungs while he took the gun back from his sister and tucked it away in his pocket where it had been minutes prior.

There was an unsure look in his eyes -as if he were trying to figure out her motives, see if this was some sort of test or trap.

She managed to let out the breath she'd been holding when their eyes locked and she could see so much of their parents in them.  
They'd raised him to be an extraordinary human being.

Taught him right from wrong at a very early age and Bird, the girl who didn't trust much, was confident enough in the values they'd taught him that she was willing to hand him a loaded weapon.

He wasn't going to kill anyone, even if he didn't know it himself, she did.

The siblings walked back over the the door labeled 9B and after exchanging looks, Bruce raised his hand and knocked loudly on the chipped paint covered wood.

The door opened and Bird's eyes went to the face of the man who'd gunned down their parents, while Bruce stared down at Matches' shoes; his shiny, black shoes.  
Just like he remembered from the night his entire life had been thrown from the tracks.

Bird stood in silence, waiting on her brother to say something -this was his plan after all.

"M...Mat-Ma-M…Mat…Matches Malone?" He could barely even bring himself to stammer out.

Caught a little off guard by the stuttering teenager, Matches nodded his head and stared between the pair with a rather blank expression.

Coming to his senses, Bruce pulled the roll of cash from his pocket and said, "I want to hire you."  
His guise of wanting to employ the hitman worked like a charm and Matches let out a chuckle as he stepped to the side to let them in and muttered, "Kids nowadays…"

Bruce's legs felt so weak that he wasn't even sure how he managed to carry himself inside the apartment.  
Meanwhile, Bird didn't seem the least bit rattled as she walked in behind her brother and shut the door behind them.

"So, you wanna hire me?" Matches asked as he pulled a bottle down from a cabinet and poured himself a drink.

Bruce had a hard time keeping up the act.  
He wasn't sure what he'd expected when the door opened, but he certainly didn't expect to see an average looking middle aged man.

There was nothing remarkable about Matches Malone.  
Not his looks, nor his clothes, or his apartment.

He looked normal.  
Like someone you'd pass on the street and not even give a second thought about.

He didn't seem near as tall as Bruce remembered.  
In his nightmares and darkest thoughts, he'd built the one who'd killed his parents up to be a menacing figure -a monster.

So how could Matches seem so normal?  
How could someone so average have wrecked his life on such a disastrous scale?

Blinking rapidly and trying to slow his racing heart, Bruce managed to replay the last question he'd been asked in his mind and answer, "I want someone to die."

"Wait long enough and they will." Matches smiled at his own joke and took a swig from his glass.

"I don't want to wait." Bruce answered within a reasonable amount of time.

"You're kinda young to be putting out a contract." He commented before glancing to where Bird was standing and added, "She don't talk much, does she?"

"I'm old enough." Bruce said and Bird took the lead as she said, "Look, we're taking a risk even being here… so do you want the job or not?"

Shooting his sister a look, Bruce questioned, "Are you a proficient killer?"

"Hmm." He hummed against the edge of his glass as he took another drink and turned to face the siblings.

He'd been hired before by all walks of life to put an end to the life of the same diverse pool, but this was something new even for him.

Bruce was dressed in layers of clothes that were clearly a few sizes too big on him and mismatched in color and style.  
He might have looked like your average street kid who'd shoplifted whatever clothes he could get his hands on to try and stay warm, but he was very well spoken.

Then there was Bird, who after some styling advice from her lawyer, looked as though she could have walked out of any executive office building on the rich side of town -yet when she opened her mouth she had the attitude and language of someone with street smarts.

"What's the deal with you two?" Matches questioned looking between them, "I thought you wanted to hire me -you didn't say nothing about a job interview, kid."

"I have to be sure I'm getting the right man." Bruce replied, adjusting his stance and breathing a small sigh of relief that he was able to process his thoughts faster than he'd been right when the door open and he'd been reduced to a trembling boy with a sudden stutter.

"Don't you know a killer when you see one?" He asked.

"Actually you look very ordinary." Bruce admitted, "Have you killed a lot of people?"

"I kill all kind of folks… just about every way you can." Matches said as he refilled his glass, then walked past them out of the kitchen and into the small space that was his living room and dinning area, "Rich, poor, guilty, innocent. By hand, by blade, by gun."

Coming to stop next to the table, he turned back to face them as he added, "Burned just one guy and after that, they call you Matches for the rest of your days. Life's funny, isn't it?"

Bruce stood in place and watched as Matches held his glass out to the side before taking a small drink.

When no one said anything or moved from where they were standing, Matches asked, "Cat got your tongue?"

Bird looked over to where her brother was standing perfectly in place, barely even appearing to blink.

Seeing the look Bird was giving to her brother, Matches gruffly asked him, "What's the matter, kid. You sick?"

"He's fine." Bird stepped forward, "It's just not every day that we put a hit out on someone is all."

"I'm fine." Bruce swallowed hard and echoed his sister's words before wiping the sweat off his forehead and agreeing, "Nervous is all. But, you seem to be the right man."

"You're damn right I am." He proudly agreed.  
Eyeing them both, he sat down at the table and questioned, "Should we talk pricing?"

When they both nodded and entered into the room further with him, he began his usual spiel, "Well, it starts at ten grand for a simple hit on an adult male vic. Then there's a sliding scale depending on how hard the job is. I charge double for women and triple for kids -no babies. I won't kill babies."

"Ten thousand?" Bruce choked out as tears started to well up in his eyes, "That's cheap."

"Ha. Low rent." Matches bellowed, "Who do you want dead, son?"

Bruce stepped up the table and Bird followed closely behind him.

"You really don't remember me, do you?" He asked.

Seeing the tears welled up in the teenagers eyes, Matches grew confused, "Remember you? No… we've met before?"

"Yes. We've met before." Drawing the handgun, Bruce aimed at Matches and said, "You killed my parents."

"Oh…" Matches blew out a breath and leaned back in his chair with a frown taking form on his face.

"Hands where we can see them." Bird ordered as she stepped up beside her brother.

"Relax." He complied with the demand and held his hands up, "I'm not gonna jump ya. I could if I wanted to, but… I'm too tired. Who are you now?"

"My name is Bruce Wayne." He cleared his throat so his voice would come out strong and clear, "This is my sister, Starling. Two years ago you killed our parents in the theater district, in an ally."

"Their names were Thomas and Martha Wayne." Bird added, placing a hand on her brother's shoulder when she saw how badly the gun was shaking in his hand, "You shot and killed them right in front of my brother."

After giving it some thought, Matches sighed, "Not sure that rings a bell…"

"You looked right at me." Bruce reminded him as the tears that had welled up in his eyes started to spill down his cheeks.

"I was busy that year." Matches excused tossing his hands out to the side and seeming to have no knowledge of the crime.

"My parents were important people." Bruce's voice wavered, "It was a big deal in all of the newspapers."

"I don't read the papers much. Don't watch T.V." He shrugged, "Always the same bad news."

"You really don't remember?" Bruce asked with desperation in his tone.

"Well, hey…some of them stick with you. There was this mustache fella, a big bad cry baby, comes back to me in my dreams all the time." He shrugged as he truly couldn't make sense of it himself, "Like he's important. I, uh, I can't even recall his name or if I stabbed him, tossed him off a roof? I don't know."

"My parents were in evening clothes. It was cold and wet. You-you grabbed my mothers pearl necklace and it broke-" Bruce started to explain, but stopped when he saw the realization in the hitman's eyes.

"Oh… oh yeah, and the beads went everywhere. It's coming back to me now." Glancing down to the table he tried to recall further, "Nice looking blonde lady and a silver fox type dude… and a kid. That was you?"

"That was me." Bruce's voice was stronger than before.  
He wasn't sure why it mattered so much, or why he'd spent so much time trying to help Matches remember. It just seemed important.

"Who hired you?" Bruce demanded to know and Bird glanced down to the floor.

She knew the likely hood of them getting information out of him would be slim to be none.  
Either because he'd truly put in so many hits that nothing really stuck out in his mind about their parents or because he abided to the same criminal code of ethics that Bird held herself too -the one where nothing is worse than being a rat.

"Maybe no one did." Matches shrugged, "Maybe I just saw some rich suckers. Someone like that walks into a dark alley, they deserved it cause they let it happen. The way of the world isn't it, son?"

"Don't call me son." Bruce was quick to argue.

"Why? If I did what you think I did then I made you what you are. Just like Gotham made me. Just like rich folks like your parents made Gotham. So, I might as well call you son."

Raising the gun back up and pointing it at the center of his face, Bruce hissed, "I can make you tell me who hired you!"

"You think so?"

"I can hurt you. I can shoot you in the knee… or the stomach."

Bird tucked her hair behind her ears and tried to steady her own nerves.  
She'd been so sure that her brother wouldn't stoop to murder before they walked into the apartment and now he was threatening to torture Matches.

"But you can't make me tell you a damn thing." Matches explained, "Killers code ain't much but it's what I've got. If I did what you say I did and someone hired me to do it… you'll never know their name. Not even if you take me apart, piece by piece."

"He's right." Bird quietly said to her brother, "It's a waste of time."

This man was nothing more than a hollowed out waste of space.

"Well, then I guess there's nothing left to the say." Bruce cocked the gun and took aim at Matches' face, while the hitman held his drink up and said, "Here's to you son, you've been a long time coming."

"You want me to kill you." Bruce realized, "Why?"

Shaking his head back and forth, tears burned at his eyes before he finally sighed, "A little rich kid like you would never understand."

"Try us." Bird stepped in.

With shaking breathing he tried to explain, "A man gets tired doing wrong and going unpunished. Nothing happens. You start to wonder if there is a God, or hell, if there's anything bigger than us out there."

Taking a small sip from his glass in an attempt to calm his nerves, Matches leaned back in the chair and made himself a ready and easy target.

Bird held her breath and watched as Bruce's hands trembled.

Seeing he was struggling, Matches said, "Tighten your left hand grip. Aim right here…" He pointed to his chest, "Aim a little low, she'll kick."

Bruce adjusted his grip like he was told, but hesitated when it came time to actually pull the trigger.

"Come on, kid. Pull the trigger!"

"No!" Bruce yelled quickly taking his finger off of the trigger.

"Come on. Don't lose your nerve now. Do it!" Matches yelled, "Look at me. I'm a monster. You meed to kill me." His voice softened by the end and his chin quivered ever so slightly.

Bird's chest ached from how long she'd held her breath as she watched a few spare tears run down her little brother's face.

"I wish you were a monster." Bruce admitted with a painful rawness, as he lowered the gun and somberly said, "But you're just a man."

Putting the gun back into his pocket, Bruce turned left the apartment with tear filled eyes.

Finally letting out the breath she'd been holding, Bird watched as her brother left before she took the empty seat across the small round wooden table from Matches.

Looking up from where his sight had fell to the table, he said in a weak voice, "I don't know what you want, but if you're looking for some kind of apology… it ain't gonna happen, sweetheart."

"I don't want an apology and I'm certainly not foolish enough to have expected one." Bird admitted as she hastily blew out a breath and shook her head back and forth before calmly stating, "I thought about this day so often, you know? The day I'd finally be face-to-face with the person who killed my parents."

"And is it everything you hoped it'd be?" He questioned.

"Truthfully?" Bird give small sigh and slight shrug before an out of place smile turned the corners of her lips up, "It's more. I'm happy."

Matches glanced around the room and then back to Bird, wondering what on earth could be causing that reaction out of her.  
Maybe she was the sick one and not her brother.

"You're wrong, Mr. Malone." Bird elaborated, "My brother is what he is -not because of you, but in-spite of you. I handed him a loaded gun and put all of my faith and my trust in him to have the strength to not pull that trigger. And you know? Everyone always lets me down -but not him, not my brother. He's made of something great -cut from a cloth that people like us can't come close to touching and I'm proud of him for who he is now and the man he's growing into."

"Hmm." He hummed, watching her intently as he repeated back, "People like us?"

"You're right about one thing, you know, some of them do stick with you." Referring back to what he'd said earlier, Bird told a tale of her own, "I was sent to do a job last year. This idiot had been stealing money from my boss, trying to rally support and planning to overthrow him. Seemed easy enough. I tracked him to this bar just outside of the narrows that he'd frequent. He was just sitting alone in his car- head leaned back against the headrest and I thought he was sleeping, maybe passed out drunk?"

With a small shrug she continued, "So, I shot him in the head. One shot, nice and clean execution. That was when I heard her scream…"

"Who?" Matches asked, still holding his glass in his hand.

"The prostitute who'd had her head in his lap." Bird candidly said with raised brows when she earned a small chuckle from the man across the table from her.

"I can still hear the sounds of her screams and the… the noise she kept making, like she was drowning in her own tears and trying to gulp breaths of air down that just kept bubbling back up and choking her." Bird closed her eyes for a second to silence the sounds of that night, "I've done a lot of bad in my life, but nothing haunts me quite as bad as she does."

Bird looked down to the table and struggled to fully pull in a breath, "But she'd seen my face and I couldn't risk-"

"I'm the last person you gotta explain yourself too." Matches commented as he cut her defense short.

"Who knew we'd have so much to agree on." She sarcastically replied, tasting every bitter syllable of her sentence.

Not letting him get a word in, though he hadn't even tried, Bird said, "I know why you wanted my brother to kill you; because you want to remembered. To leave something behind. If he'd killed you then a piece of you would have lived forever inside of him. But me?" Bird asked, as she pulled the gun from the waistband of her pants, "To me you're nothing. Soon enough I'll forget what your face looks like, I won't even remember the sound of your voice. You'll fade into nothing. I have a lot of ghosts to keep my up at night, but you won't be one of them."

"Well, then…" Matches breathed as he brought his glass to his lips before he looked up at Bird and questioned, "Can I at least finish my drink?

Unlike Bruce, he knew a killer when he saw one and the sand in the hourglass was running out.

With a curt nod, Bird took aim with her gun and stood calmly while he downed what little amount was left in his glass.

Setting the glass back on the table, he offered up a nod and said, "Thanks."

Not saying another word to him, Bird fired three shots into his chest.

One for her father.  
One for her mother.  
And the last one for her brother, who in many ways had never left the night or the ally where he'd watched them die.

•••

* * *

 **A/N- Ahh! Guys, I know I thank you every chapter for reading and shout-out to those who have reviewed, but I really am so thankful for the outpouring of support you all have shown!  
I remember back when I first posted Bird; I wasn't sure of anyone would be interested in reading and so to be sitting here now at 328 reviews for this story alone just blows my mind!**

 **There have been some times along the way where I've barely gotten any response to a chapter (sometimes a few in a row) and couldn't help but wonder if anyone was still reading and interested in my story. Lol**  
 **So, I just really can't stress enough how much your feedback and kind words are capable of cheering me up and keeping me motivated. I'm feeling blessed from the show of support. Thank you!  
**

 **That all being said, I owe extra special thank yous to: Love. Fiction. 2017, Shadow knight1121, Kakkorat is Cake, PetrovaLover, Rasiel Hasu, Munyue, Amelia, Katniss789, IAmZeeChloe, DancingDorisDay, xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, SmellYourScentForMiles and to the Guests who have reviewed since the last chapter. ^_^**


	21. Soul Survivor

**XXI**

 _Be yourself; everyone else is already taken." - Oscar Wilde_

* * *

•••

Bruce rubbed his forehead and looked up to the front of the car where Jim was driving towards Wayne Manor and Bird was sitting silently in the passenger seat.

The lack of sound in the car was beginning to make him overly aware of how loud his breathing sounded.

His eyes darted between the back of their heads as he wondered if his breathing sounded just as loud to them, but if it did neither one acknowledged it.

It was then that he caught Jim's line of sight in the rear view mirror and the detective's forehead lined in anger all over again.

Unable to hold his tongue any longer Jim gruffly yelled, "Is someone going to tell me what the hell is going on?"

It was only several minutes ago that he'd showed up at Malone's apartment building and got to the ninth floor where he saw Bruce out in the hallway just in time to hear three consecutive gunshots echo through the old structure.

Jim rushed into the apartment to find Bird sitting across the table from a very dead Matches Malone, casually texting someone on her phone as if she hadn't just killed someone in cold blood.

From then he'd pulled her out of the apartment and hurried both Bird and Bruce out to his car.  
He wasn't even sure what he was thinking at the time, other than they all couldn't be found there together when GCPD was bound to show up at some point.

"I think you already know what's happened." Bruce was the next to speak.

"Do you have any idea how serious this is?" He lectured, eyeing the teenager from the rear view mirror again, "We're talking about a homicide here-"

"He didn't kill anyone." Bird was quick to defend, but her words only earned her one of Jim Gordon's signature not impressed and highly pissed off looks, so she reminded him, "I told you at the hospital that I was going to kill Malone when we found him."

Realizing how tightly he was gripping the steering wheel and observing the veins protruding from the side of his neck, Bird shook her head, "Jim you need to calm down before give yourself a heart attack."

Letting out a huff of air, he shook his head in disbelief.  
If anything was going to send him into an early heart attack, it was going to the Wayne family.

He still couldn't understand why Alfred would agree to have been a part of any of this. He was supposed to be Bruce's legal guardian and yet he was letting him chase down leads all over the city and landed himself in the hospital after taking a bad beating.

Bruce had gotten his hands on a gun and set off to kill someone and then in her usual style, Bird always seemed to make bad situations far more catastrophic; and this time around had actually murdered someone.

"It's okay-" Bird started to tell him, but Jim looked over and snapped, "What part of this is okay? When the police find Malone's body, you do realize the next stop is going to be your front door, right?"

"He had to die, Jim." She argued.

"No." He shook his head, "He needed to be arrested and brought to justice-"

"Oh, really?" Bird was quick to reply with a razor sharp tongue, "I remember you being perfectly fine with a different course of action when it came to Galavan."

Bruce raised his head and looked between them as he started to read between the lines of a conversation that he wasn't meant to hear.

Oswald Cobblepot was in Arkham after confessing to Galavan's murder, but Bird had been very adamant and swore that neither she or her best friend had actually killed him.  
But his Bird wouldn't tell him exactly who'd killed him -in her silence she was protecting someone and that didn't make sense to him until now.

"I can't keep doing this." Jim nearly growled.  
She always seemed to be holding some over his head, whether it was how many times she'd risked her life to help him or a secret that could bring him down.

Bruce's eyebrows lowered at the tone in which Jim was using with his sister when apparently it wasn't all that long ago when the detective had killed someone too.

"Sounds to me like you don't have much room for judgment, Detective." Bruce spoke up and Bird nearly choked on the breath of air she was taking.

"Bruce, there are things that you don't understand." Jim said; though his voice wasn't as rough as before.

Bruce nodded and tucked his hands inside of his coat pockets. He was sure that was true.  
Apparently there was a lot going on that he hadn't known about it.

He couldn't think of two men who deserved to die more than Matches Malone and Theo Galavan, but the conversation he'd had with Bird not too long ago was still fresh in his mind.

He'd chastised her for her life choices and taking it upon herself to decide who lives and dies.  
At that moment in time he couldn't imagine a situation, other than in self-defense, in which killing someone would be justifiable.

That was until he'd uncovered the identity of the man who'd killed his parents and then was face-to-face with him.  
He'd never hated someone that bad in his entire life and he'd wanted so badly to find the strength to pull that trigger.

But he couldn't.

Malone was made of flesh and bone; no horns, no outward signs of being a monster and for that he couldn't kill him.  
At the end of the day Matches Malone was just a man, albeit a bad man, but still human.

Looking back at the night, Bruce was nearly sure that Bird had only given him the gun back because she knew he wouldn't have it in him to kill someone -and had apparently showed up armed herself to finish the job.

Malone might be dead, but he still didn't feel much closer to unraveling the truth of who was the brains behind his parents' murders.  
But he wasn't giving up.

He was going to keep searching and when they found out who was behind it all -he'd make them pay.  
He'd be stronger then, he was sure of it.

"As far as anyone is concerned, Matches Malone just…disappeared." Bird said, "By the time GCPD actually shows up at his apartment there won't be any trace left of what happened."

"What are you talking about?" Jim questioned and Bruce leaned forward to make sure he didn't miss anything she said.

"I knew tonight was going to end with a dead body. So I had a clean up crew on standby." Bird smiled, a little too proud of herself, "The best of the best. Trust me. We're in the clear. Police won't find anything."

Jim glanced over at her and realized that must have been who she was messaging on her phone when he walked into the apartment.  
He also couldn't help but sigh; the more details she told him about what happened the more he'd be incriminated if the truth came out.

"A clean up crew?" Bruce questioned.

"You don't want to know." Bird answered glancing over her shoulder to where he was sitting.

Swallowing hard and forcing the sick feeling back down in his stomach, Bruce quietly said, "I think I already do."

Jim drove through the open gates and up the front drive where he came to a stop in front of the mansion.

Looking into the backseat he said, "Get your things and I'll drive you to the hospital. Alfred's going to be released in the morning."

Bruce glanced at his sister who gave him a small smile and nodded.  
He looked between them again before slowly exiting the car; it was obvious to him that Bird and Jim were waiting on him to leave so they could talk.

Once they were alone, Bird glanced around the inside of the car before reiterating, "You've got nothing to worry about, Jim. As far as anyone is concerned Matches Malone could have skipped town months ago."

"What are you doing, Bird?" Jim asked, turning some in the seat to get a better look at her, "Last time we saw each other you were talking about a fresh start somewhere outside of Gotham. What happened to that?"

"I was wrong." Bird admitted, "I spent so long blaming my problems on this city and everyone in it, but Gotham is my home and I'm not going anywhere."

"This has to stop." Jim shook his head, "There are other ways to solve problems that don't end with the need to call in a cleaning crew."

Pulling in a breath he asked, "Doesn't it ever start to get to you? All the blood on your hands?"

"It washes off." Bird coyly replied, but Jim was at the ready with an argument, "Not all of it, some of it stains."

Now it was her turn to rearrange the way she was sitting in the passenger seat so she could face him.

"Jim…" She ran her tongue over her lips, "Why did you call me last month?"

When he didn't answer, Bird's eyebrow furrowed as she thought back to her strange encounter with Jeri and what the woman had called her; a sin-eater.

At the time Bird had been far too worried about her brother to give much thought or consideration to the term and the meaning behind it.

It was clear that Jim was living to regret the decision he'd made to put Galavan down.

Her eyes dropped down to her hands resting on her legs and she thought of how there was some truth to what Jeri called her.

Not only was she able to make the tough choices that would keep others up at night, but she was also ready and willing to do something bad so that the people she cared about wouldn't have to.

It was as if everyone came to her with their sins and she absorbed them into herself to ease their burdens; as if she somehow had the power to absolve them of what they'd done.

"Oh my god. You wanted someone to tell you that what you did was okay." She said out loud in response to his continued silence.

What the ones she was loyal to failed to realize was that unloading their guilt on her made her load far heavier to carry.

With furrowed brows and a hint of anger in her tone she said, "Well, I'm sorry, but it's not my job to ease your conscience, Jim."

"We were in the wrong. How can you not see that?" His voice raised.

"We did what we had to stop Galavan." Bird argued, "Jim, you've killed people before-"

"Not like that." He shook his head and stared straight out of the front windshield, though all he could see was the events of that night playing over in his mind, "He was on his knees, handcuffed -broken and bleeding and…"

"And you shot and killed him." Bird flatly stated before she bit down on the side of her tongue and tried to choose her next words carefully.

She'd been haunted by a lot in her life; but putting people like Galavan down never quite made the list of things she'd lived to regret.

Leaning closer towards the console between their seats, Bird lowered her voice and said, "Jim, I could sit here and name off a very long list of reasons of why Galavan deserved to go out the way he did, but nothing I'd say is going to matter."

Turning his head to face her, he swallowed hard as their eyes locked and despite his best attempts not to -his gaze briefly fell to her lips.

"Why did you do it?" Bird whispered, unable to bring much volume to her voice in such close proximity to him, "You could have turned the other cheek and let Oswald and I take care of it, but you came with us and you chose to be the one who killed him. Why?"

"I don't know." He automatically answered, but Bird always ended up being the one with the uncanny ability to get him to open up.  
Which was something that had never come easily for him.

"Yes, you do." She pushed.

Letting out a breath and turning back to face her he admitted, "I didn't see Galavan for who he really was." With his voice just over a whisper he continued, "It's my job to serve and protect this city from people like him and I… I failed."

At the time he thought doing away with Galavan would be a way of starting to right his wrongs.  
Destroy the source of an evil that had touched far too many lives and maybe he could save the day.

After all, you cut the head off the snake and the body dies.

But all it did was cause more problems for him and forced him to lie to everyone around him -even Lee.

Barnes hadn't looked at him the same way since that night and he'd lied under oath during a hearing with the DA's office.

This wasn't who he was -he couldn't let himself be that person.

He needed to value justice over revenge; right over wrong.

It wasn't something that he was willing to admit out loud, but revenge played a big part in why he'd chosen to kill Galavan.

Even though Bird was alive and well, he'd never forget how she looked the night she'd been shot.  
The feeling of her blood on his hands and how weak her body was when he'd cradled her in his arms on the ground under the streetlights with sirens in the distance.

He'd spent a month thinking she was dead and hating himself for how he'd let her down -and he'd wanted someone to pay for that.

Feeling like he was still holding something back. Bird gave a small shrug and promised, "Whatever your reasons were, what happened the night Galavan died stays between us. Your secret is safe, Jim."

With that she fell back into her seat and didn't look back in his direction as she located the handle and opened the car door to step out into the night air.

It wasn't until she looked up at the door to the house that she realized her brother had been outside watching them.

As Bird neared him she opened her mouth to say something, but Bruce went first, "What's going on?"

"What are you talking about?" She quickly answered, leaving him more suspicious as he looked behind her towards the car.

He'd came out of the house a few minutes prior, but stopped just outside of the door when he'd saw them both leaned towards the center of the car with their faces so close to one another.  
For a moment he actually thought they might kiss.

"Between you and Detective Gordon." Bruce stated, watching her face close to try and gauge her reaction.

"Call me tomorrow when they go to release Alfred and I'll come pick you both up from the hospital." She blatantly ignored his question, "Then we'll talk about what happened tonight."

"We don't need to talk-"

"You stole a gun from me; you ditched Alfred at the hospital to chase down Malone and kill him. Bruce, you pointed a loaded weapon at someone tonight -yeah, we need to talk." Bird's stern tone lightened when she placed her hands on his shoulders and said, "But not tonight. Just sit with Alfred tonight and get some rest. We'll deal with everything else tomorrow."

••• **a few days later•••**

"Smile." Erin instructed as she hovered over where Bird was sitting in a chair with a make-up artist dusting more matte powder on her face after stating her face looked too shiny in the bright lighting.

With her breath stuck in her throat, Bird tried to jerk her face away from the kabuki brush and admitted, "I don't… I don't think I can do this."

"What are you talking about?" Erin complained, "Of course you can do this. Your interview is the headlining feature on tonight's news-"

"The entire city turned on me once before… if I get on camera and say even the slightest thing wrong then I'm right back to where I started." Bird finally opened up just as she shot the make-up artist a warning look and the woman jumped back startled at the darkness in her eyes.

"Give us a moment?" Erin said with a dismissive shake of her head and everyone in the room who'd been putting last minute touches on the set where the interview was slated to take place quickly left in silence.

Once they were alone, Erin dragged one of the cloth back chairs over in front of her and sat down as she questioned, "Where is this coming from? You were fine when we discussed this before…"

"That was then!" Bird explained, "And, uh, this is now; and my heart is racing like I've just ran a marathon and I haven't really been able to take a deep breath since everyone started showing up and any minute now that reporter is going to walk into this room and all of Gotham is expecting me to -to be some shining star and when they see the truth I'm just going to let everyone down and-"

"No, you're not." Erin sternly said as she cut the rambling young woman off, "You're not going to let anyone down, Bird. You're going to be open and honest, tell your story and answer the questions you're asked and I promise you the city is going to fall in love with you-"

"Ha!" Bird jolted forward in her seat as if she were about to make a run for it, "I'm a mess-"

"You're not perfect." Erin agreed, glancing down to her watch to see how they were doing on time before her eyes locked with Bird's, "Which is good because no one wants to see perfect. They want to see a real person. You're a survivor who's still trying to piece their life back together. You came back from the dead… getting through one on camera interview is going to be a piece of cake."

Nodding, Bird blinked rapidly as the film crew entered the room again and started to get the lighting situated just right.

"You're going to be fine." Erin promised.

The next several minutes passed in a blinding blur as Bird was led over to the chair where she'd give her interview from in a sitting room of Wayne Manor. The already elegantly decorated room had been rearranged with new background props brought in.

Bird's eyes focused for a moment on the large vase of vibrantly colored fresh flowers on a small french wood end table next to her chair as the make-up artist returned and put on the last few touches while the stylist added a final few spritzes of hairspray to Bird's recently lightened hair.

All the while Erin hovered close by and continued to try and ease her nerves by reminding her that they had a few hours before the segment would air to edit the interview and so it was perfectly fine if she messed up or needed extra time to think out an answer.

"Miss Wayne."

Bird scrambled to her feet to greet the reporter with an out stretched hand as she quickly replied, "Mrs. Navarro."

Clutching onto her hand with an uncomfortable tightness, Bird nervously added, "Welcome to Wayne Manor."

"Thank you." She answered with a cringe of pain.  
Clasping her other hand over Bird's she gave a gentle squeeze and warmly added, "Please, call me, Nancy."

Swallowing hard, Bird let go of her hand and stiffly sat back down in her chair.

Nancy blew out a breath and glanced over at the news station employee that was manning camera one with a unsure expression.  
If Bird was this nervous and rigid in person it would only be amplified through the screens of the city.

"Take a deep breath." Nancy instructed as she took a seat in her own chair facing the eldest Wayne, "Tonight is about you. You're the girl who came back from the dead -the girl that lived and everyone is wanting to know more about you."

Bird pulled in a deep breath and slowly exhaled as her eyes still darted around the room until they stopped on where Alfred was standing just out of the camera angle with the news crew.  
He gave her a small nod and a proud smile and Bird smiled back at him.

It was then that her little brother entered the room and stood next to their butler. He curiously looked around the room until his eyes landed on his sister and he gave her a soft smile.

Calming down some at having them both there, Bird looked back to the reporter and blew out the breath she'd been holding as she spoke, "I'm ready when you are."

Nancy smiled as she watched the young woman loosen her posture and appear infinitely more relaxed than she had been moments before.

This was what Erin had promised her.  
A beautiful charming young woman with a thousand watt smile that would resonate with all of Gotham.

Clearing her throat, Nancy readjusted in her chair some and explained that they were going to jump right into the interview, that the intro would be recorded back at the studio with her providing some back ground before it would air.

"I'm not sure what to call you." Nancy chuckled, "Would you prefer Miss Wayne or is Starling more appropriate?"

"Bird." She answered with a smile of her own, "I prefer Bird."

"Bird?" Nancy repeated back, "That's a little unusual, isn't it?"

"More unusual than Starling?" Bird didn't miss a beat as she glanced down to her lap and then back up to the reporter with a playful look in her dark brown eyes.

"Why, Bird?" Her eyes narrowed ever so slightly with an inquisitive expression.

"It's really the only name that feels like it belongs to me." She openly answered.

"Yes." The reporter nodded as she glanced down to the cards in her hand of talking points, "You were adopted into the Wayne family when you were five years old, isn't that right?"

Without giving her a chance to respond, Nancy got to work asking one of the questions that had been on everyone's mind since rumors had started on the topic over a year ago.

"Would you care to address the rumors that you're actually Carmine Falcone's daughter?"

"It's true." Bird admitted on the exhale of the breath she'd been holding in her lungs for what felt like an eternity, "Carmine Falcone is my biological father -I only recently learned the truth last year, myself."

"And your mother?"

"Is Lilith Wayne." Bird opened up, "Thomas and Martha Wayne are…" Catching her slip up in the tense in which she spoke of the, Bird paused and then corrected, " _Were_ … technically my aunt and uncle."

"That must have came as quite a shock!"

"It did." Bird shook her head, "I didn't learn the truth until after they'd been killed and I'd be lying if I tried to say it didn't jar my entire world. I didn't handle the truth well at first, but then I realized that it didn't change anything for me; my parents were still my parents."

"So, you still refer to the Waynes as your parents?" Nancy leaned forward slightly as she spoke.

"I do." Bird stated, "They were there through every skinned knee, every bout of the flu… they always looked at me as their daughter and loved me even during the times I made it difficult on them."

"Here you sit -both a Wayne and a Falcone…" Nancy motioned with her hand, "Sounds like you'd have the city in the palm of your hand."

"You'd think so, right?" Bird managed a small laugh, "No, the, uh… the truth is that I didn't have an easy start to life. Lily, my biological mother, had struggled nearly her entire life with mental health problems and not long after I was born she took me and ran. She didn't want me growing up a part of the Falcone Crime Family, but she wasn't capable of raising a baby on her own and so I sort of got lost in the system."

"Bounced around from orphanages and unfit foster homes until Thomas and Martha were able to track me down and bring me home. I didn't grow up with a really strong sense of self. I was five years old before I actually had a name." Bird admitted.

"I can't even imagine…" Nancy sympathized with emotion on her face, "I assume this ties in with your comment earlier about preferring to be called Bird; that it's the only name you feel like you own."

"It's funny in a way." Bird half-smiled, "The nameless little girl grew up into someone with many names. I didn't find out until I was in my twenties, but I was given the name Carmina when I was born. And then of course, Starling, after I was adopted -but it never really felt like it was a name I could own. But Bird, that one is all mine."

"You know, I have to say that it's sobering to be having this conversation with you. On the drive up to Wayne Manor and the tour your butler so graciously gave me when I got here, I found myself trying to imagine what it could have possibly been like to grow up in such a grand house." Reaching out, Nancy gently laid her hand on Bird's as she continued, "Sitting here with you now, I can clearly see that while you've lived a privileged life… you have most certainly faced down your share of hardships. I hope you don't mind me saying, but you're much more down to earth than I'd expected."

After earning a smile from the young woman she was interviewing, Nancy sat back in her chair and said, "Forgive me for the sudden shift in conversation, but I know that I, as well as everyone watching from home, has one topic that is just looming in front of all the others."

Laying the cards down on the small table beside her, Nancy threw her hands up as she exclaimed, "You're alive! It was just a couple months ago that news of your demise was splashed across every paper in town. So, how are you sitting here with me right now? I've heard the world miracle tossed around."

"It's been a really long road to get to where I'm sitting . I thought I was going to die. I did die." Bird answered, pausing to take a sip of the water from the crystal class off the table beside her, "I think in a lot of ways I'm still mourning my own loss. I know that sounds silly-"

"No, it makes a lot of sense. I imagine there has been a lot to come to terms with. None of that could have been easy."

"So much of my life was decided for me. From the time Lily took and abandoned me as an infant. I didn't get a choice in that. Then being adopted as a child, as grateful and blessed as I was for that… the Wayne name is sometimes a heavy crown to bear and there were times where I felt crushed under that weight. The night that I was shot and nearly killed, Carmine Falcone had a contingency plan. His idea was that I could start over… make my own decisions in a life where I'd been stripped of that right countless times."

"But that decision was, in fact, taking another choice away from you?" Nancy caught on, "Your family and friends were left behind to think they'd lost you for good."

"His heart was in the right place." Bird dismissed, "But this is the city where I was born. It's the only home I've known and I couldn't just walk away from that -away from everyone who matters to me."

"Well, Bird, I for one, am very glad you're back among the living. Theo Galavan's time in Gotham left a dark mark that's sure to still be felt years from now, but you're here despite his every attempt to bring your family down." Nancy said.

"That was no easy feat." Bird blew out a breath and moved her hands as she spoke, "Galavan was out for revenge against me and my family long before I even knew he was was. He blew through Gotham -through my life like a storm and yes, I'm very much still trying to pick the pieces."

With a nod of understanding, Nancy asked, "Looking back, I can't believe how deeply the city fell under Galavan's spell. To the point that he even had the full support of the GCPD and the DA's office."  
Shaking her head in disbelief she began her open ended statement, "It would be completely understandable if you were still harboring any ill feelings towards the police department."

There was a thoughtful pause on Bird's end.  
She usually never missed an opportunity to openly speak her distaste for the police department, but Erin had already stressed to her how important it was to work on building new bridges and not go burning them down.

"You know, it would be all too easy to point fingers and start assigning blame, but I don't hold the police department responsible for what happened. Hindsight is 20/20 and of course looking back there are all of these telltale signs that everyone missed, but the only person who actually deserves to be blamed for what Theo Galavan did -is Galavan himself. Everyone else who got swept away in his larger than life campaign is just as much of a victim as I was."

"You don't really strike me as the type of person who so willing refers to themselves as a victim."

"I'm not." Bird stammered before taking a moment to compose herself, "Or I wasn't. There's a lot of stigma surrounding that word. Like being a victim means that you're weak or somehow to blame for _'letting'_ something happen to you and that's not true at all. The truth is that you can be incredibly strong and fight with everything you have and still end up losing; still end up being victimized."

"That's very true." Nancy nodded, but didn't get to say much else as Bird continued, "I'm not just a victim. I'm a survivor. I know the whole 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger' saying is a cliche, but there is some real truth in it. You don't go through hell and come out the other end weaker, you just don't. Gotham City is full of survivors; I'm just one of the many."

••• **later that night•••**

"Has it started yet?" Bird called out as she hastily rushed into the study where Alfred had moved the table with the T.V on it in front of one of the couches.

"Just about." Alfred answered, keeping an eye on Bird as she darted around the side of the couch and plopped onto the cushion right beside him with a nearly over flowing bowl of popcorn.

With a small sigh he watched as some of the popped kernels spilled over the side of the bowl and down onto the furniture and finally the floor.  
She'd never been one who cared about making a mess, probably because she wasn't the one who'd have to clean it up.

"There's nothing to be nervous about." He tried to assure her, "You're a natural, Lady Wayne. Would have made mum and dad damn proud today."

"Thanks Alfred." She managed a small smile, but before she could say much else she caught a familiar face grace the screen and gasped, "It's Nancy Navarro!"  
With that she lunged forward for the remote resting on the coffee table and turned up the volume as Alfred called out, "Master Bruce!"

" _Good evening and thank you for tuning in. Tonight we have a channel 82 exclusive interview with Gotham's very own, Starling Wayne -or Bird as she likes to be called. I had the absolute pleasure of getting to sit down and have a very candid conversation with her earlier this evening. We spoke about everything from her rough start in orphanages and her setting the record straight about her ties to the Falcone Crime Family up to her recent brush with death and if she feels the GCPD should be held accountable for their role in Galavan's rise to fame._  
 _I may have only spent a few short hours in her company, but I can tell you this beautiful young lady is wise beyond her years. Every bit as charming and as graceful as her parents were. Hers is a story of loss and heartache, one of triumph and finding inner strength._  
 _This is one interview that you don't want to miss. Again, this is Nancy Navarro for channel 82."_

"I'd say you did a fine job winning that one over." Alfred smiled over at Bird as they both anxiously waited for the commercials to end so they could see which parts of her lengthy interview made the cut to be shown on air.

"She did." Bruce agreed with a smile as he entered the room and caught the end of the introduction to the feature of that night's news. Sitting down on the couch next to Bird, he looked over at her and offered a smile, "I thought you did very well today."

••• **a few nights later•••**

"Bruce?" Bird called out as she walked into the study expecting to find her little brother, but when she saw entrance open to the secret stairwell behind the fireplace was open she let out a small sigh.

She was all for training, staying strong and learning new fighting techniques but, it was starting to feel like all her little brother did anymore was stay down in that room and train to fight; while strangely enough she'd become the face of the Wayne name.

Her lawyer had been right.  
Once news broke city wide that she was alive and everyone learned of Galavan's criminal activities -the city loved her.

More requests for interviews from local news stations and the papers were coming in daily and ever since her interview had aired, she'd been receiving letters in the mail from people of Gotham letting her know they stood behind her and expressing their distaste and anger for Galavan.

It was a whole new world for her and she was still learning how to try and navigate the terrain.

"Bruce, hey, I was thinking maybe instead of Alfred cooking we could all go out to dinner…" Her voice trailed off as she stepped off the last stair and looked around the room they'd unveiled under Wayne Manor to see her brother was nowhere to be found.

"Bruce?" She yelled out again even though it was clear he wasn't in the room.  
But it was entirely unlike him to leave the hidden doorway to the chambers open if he wasn't down there.

Just as she started to turn and leave something caught her eye, a while envelope propped up against the screen of the computer that Lucius Fox was still trying to repair.

Her footsteps sounded unusually loud as she made her way over to the desk and plucked the envelop up.  
Opening it up she pulled a piece of paper out to see it was a handwritten letter from her brother, addressing both herself and Alfred.

" _I have left home for a while to live on the streets with Selina. Please, wait and listen before you react. You need not worry that I'm in danger or that I've lost my mind. I've thought long and hard about this decision and I know it's the right one. Malone's death made me realize a couple of things. You can't kill murder. You can't get revenge on evil. You can only begin to fight such things by not doing them. And you can only fight them where they live, not just at Wayne Enterprises. In the streets, in the slums, in the bad parts of town. So that's where I'm going.I'm not going to start battling muggers or anything. But one day, I am going to do something to help the people of Gotham. I don't know what yet, but I will. Meantime, I need to learn stuff. Number one: I need to learn how to live in the same world other people have to live in. Selina's giving me a place to sleep and will show me the ropes, so, like I say, there's no need to worry. I'll be in touch soon and I'll come home eventually. Please, trust me and honor my wishes. Don't try to bring me back. I need to do this. Sincerely, Bruce Wayne."_

Bird read over the letter again, her heart falling even further through the floor with every single word.

In the days since they'd went after Malone, she'd noticed her brother had been quieter than usual. But she'd chalked it up to the events of recent -she'd never thought it was because he was planning to take off and try living as a street kid.

"Lady Wayne!" Alfred called out with a slight huff as he reached the bottom of the stairs and complained, "Couldn't you hear me? I've only been calling you and your brother for the last ten minutes…"  
His voice trailed off when Bird turned around and faced him; it was clear to see something was very wrong.

"What is it?" He asked, eyes growing wide, "What's wrong?"

"He's gone." Bird answered, as the hand she'd been holding the letter in dropped down to her side and she gave a defeated shrug, "Bruce is gone."

"What the bloody hell are you talking about?" Alfred's voice raised from panic and in a matter of seconds he was at her side and had taken the letter from her hand.

"He's…" Alfred had trouble catching his breath as he read over it, "He's… he's lost his mind. Gone round the bend."

Bird silently crossed the room and sat down on the stairs as she hung her head and waited for Alfred to finish reading the letter more than once over, just like she'd done.

"He's…" Alfred exclaimed as he angrily threw the letter down on the desk, "We have to-"

"Let him go." Emotion was dripping from her words as she spoke.

"What?" Alfred spun around to look over in her direction, thinking both Waynes had gone mad.

"He's not a little kid anymore." Bird reasoned, "If he wants to be out there on the streets then it won't matter if we drag him back here, he'll keep looking for the next opportunity to take off."

Logically, he knew there was a great deal of truth in her words, but his knee jerk reaction was to track Bruce and Selina down and drag the boy back home -kicking and screaming, if need be.

"He's not me." Bird offered up. Swallowing hard she added, "You didn't see him that night in Malone's apartment, but I was there and he could have easily killed him, but he didn't. Alfred, he was staring the man who killed his mom and dad in the face and even after years of wanting to see that man bleed and suffer… he walked away."

Crossing the room and taking a seat on the stair beside her, Alfred quietly said, "You put a great of deal of trust in him that night."

He still wasn't happy about hearing how Bird had handed him the loaded gun and let him walk into Malone's apartment, but he understood why she did.

"I bet the house on him and I was right." Bird nodded, "Dad always pushed us to make decisions for ourselves and Bruce is doing what he was taught. And -and Selina is street savvy and she's smart, if he's sticking with her then that's a hell of a lot better than him running off on his own."

Alfred pulled in a shallow breath that failed to inflate his lungs. It now felt like there was a blackened hole where his heart once sat.

He'd never been a parent himself, but in the time that had passed since Thomas and Martha were killed, he'd put everything he had into raising Bruce the way he'd been instructed too.  
Done everything he could to fill the shoes of being the boy's guardian and the time had finally come where he needed to take a step back and trust in all the work he'd put in.

He always knew that moment would come, he just never expected it to show so soon.

"I'm at a loss, Lady Wayne." Alfred admitted, looking over to where she sat, "I haven't the slightest what to do now."

Bird nodded in agreement with him, though in truth she knew he was probably feeling more lost than she was.

Her head cocked to the side as she started to understand that her parents' murders didn't just turn hers and her brother's world on end, it had done the same to Alfred.

Not only had he lost two of his closest friends, but in one night he'd essentially went from being the family's trusted butler and friend -to being entirely responsible for the life and well-being of her brother.

She'd been thankful for Alfred being there, on countless occasions she'd thought of how she was so glad he was there because she'd never considered herself fit to be a guardian over someone else, but she was just now seeing that he was questioning that in himself.

Now that Matches Malone was gone, Bird had planned on finding herself an apartment again. The time she'd gotten to spend with her brother and helping him train was nice, but felt like her life was somewhat moving in reverse.

She'd left home the very day she turned eighteen and had been out on her own ever since and now here she was, living back at Wayne Manor several years later.

Bird hadn't told Alfred or Bruce that she'd been looking to get her own place, just as well she thought, now that those plans would be on hold.

The mansion often felt lonely enough with just the three of them living inside the walls, she couldn't imagine how the place would feel to Alfred with both she and her brother gone.

"Well…" Bird breathed, "There is that new Greek restaurant that opened up across town?"

Caught off guard, Alfred looked back over at her and asked, "Dinner? What, at a time like this?"

"We have to eat, Alfred." Bird managed a smile despite the fact that her chest felt cracked up from pain and worry, "We'll take the most inconspicuous car here and after dinner we'll take our leftovers and drive by the last place I knew of Selina staying at."

Managing a smile of his own, Alfred asked, "And what happened to letting your brother run off on his own?"

"I said drive by it." Bird repeated, "Besides, Selina isn't going to turn food down and I think we'll both sleep better knowing Bruce at least had dinner."  
Nudging him on the arm, Bird stood up and started up the stairs as she said, "Come on."

"Dinner?" Alfred said with a small chuckle, "Of leftovers?"

"Hey-" Bird called over her shoulder, "He's the one who wants like a street kid."

Letting out a small sigh, Alfred found the strength to pull himself up to his feet and returned the letter to the desk where Bird had lifted it from.

He still didn't like this.  
He'd much rather have Bruce at home, safe and sound inside of the walls of Wayne Manor, but at least keeping a distant eye on him would bring a slight peace of mind.

And in truth, he was thankful to have Bird home again. He wasn't so sure he'd be holding up as well in these circumstances without her there.

•••

Bird blew out an irritated breath an took the stairs two at a time on her way to answer the front door.  
She wasn't sure who on earth was there this time of night, but it sounded like whoever it was about to break the door down.

Alfred had left just an hour earlier claiming that he needed to pick up a few things from an all hour market in town, but Bird had the feeling that he was probably going to spend most of the night parked close to where Selina and Bruce were staying.

Unlocking the door, she pulled it open to reveal a very agitated Detective Bullock.

"What are you doing here-" Bird started to ask, but blew out a sigh when he breezed inside the house past her, "Sure, come on in." She added with a roll of the eyes before closing the door and turning to face him where she was immediately met with an interrogation.

"Where's Alfred and your brother?" He demanded to know.

Biting down on the side of her tongue and managing to keep her cool despite the tone in which he was speaking to her in, Bird lied, "They ran out to get a few things from the store. Why?"

"Because, this conversation isn't exactly for their ears." He admitted, before jumping right into his reason for dropping by the house unannounced, "An officer was killed tonight. Carl Pinkney."

"Okay…" Bird trailed off, "What does this have to do with me?"

"Oh, you know, not much-" Bullock grumbled, "Other than the fact that Jim just got arrested for his murder!"

"Wait, what?" Bird's eyes widened, "Obviously he didn't kill this guy-"

"I know that!" He tossed his arms up in the air, "I know my partner. I know he didn't do it, I don't need you to tell me that."

"I know other things too." He continued upon seeing her dumbfounded expression, "Like how they've reopened the investigation into Galavan's death. Did you know about that?"

"No, Bullock." Bird shook her head, "Why did they reopen it? Oswald confessed to-"

"A call came into the anonymous crime stoppers line. Someone saying they saw what happened by the water that night. Penguin beat the crap out of Galavan, but Jim was the one who pulled the trigger. Also knew details that weren't released to the public; like the umbrella stuff down the dead guy's gullet."

"You think that was me who called?" Bird's face twisted, "What possible reason would I have to call and stir up a mess like that?"

"Don't know." Bullock shrugged, "Maybe you just like to stir up as much chaos as you can in Jim's life, or my personal theory that you're trying to get your buddy outa Arkham at any means necessary. Up to and including throwing my partner under a bus!"

"First off, yeah I'm pretty pissed about Oswald wasting away in there… but he's the one who turned down my help. Secondly, Jim is a friend and I wouldn't do this to him." Bird yelled, not longer able to hold back her anger.

Bullock took his hat off and rubbed a hand over the top of his head.  
Jim said the same thing, he was sure that Bird hadn't had anything to do with the call to the tip-line, but Bullock didn't have the same faith in her that his partner had acquired.

In fact, he wasn't sure what the hell to believe anymore.

He'd been on the force for a number of years in Gotham and he'd seen some crap in his day, but nothing like the happenings of recent.

It seemed like ever since the night the Waynes were killed, the city had been on a downward spiral and there didn't seem to be an end in sight.

Jim Gordon was one of the most honest men he'd ever known.  
During their time as partners, Jim had even managed to get him to turn his ways around from the crooked cop the city had bent him into; and now he was sitting in jail waiting on a bail hearing set for the next morning.

"I didn't have anything to do with this." Bird repeated with more conviction in her tone.

"Yeah, so you say and so Jim says, but the one thing that really irks me about this entire thing isn't what this anonymous caller said -it's what they didn't say." Bullock admitted, giving her a moment to catch on before saying, "Now, Jim finally told me what really happened that night and the callers version of the night matches up to every last detail… except for you. Your name didn't come up once, you want to tell me how that happened?"

"I don't know!" Bird exclaimed, not sure what else the tired detective expected from her.  
She didn't have the first clue about what had happened.

"Yeah, cause it don't make sense." Bullock said jabbing an accusatory finger in her direction, "Someone wants Jim to go down for that crime, but apparently keep you clean. Maybe Oswald talked to someone?"

"I doubt that." Bird said.  
It wasn't as though snitching on someone would be totally out of the realm of possibility for her best friend, but if he'd wanted to Jim to take the fall then he'd never had confessed in the first place.

Bullock put his hat back on and shook his head. Jim didn't think Oswald was to blame for it either, but again, Bullock wouldn't put it past the greasy criminal.

"What do you want from me?" Bird finally sighed with defeat as she tried to letter the anger go, "Want me to contact an attorney? You need bail money for him? What is it?"

"Bail hearing isn't till morning." He said, "They're holding him in county till then. I just need to know what happened so I can fix this. Can't you get a hold of Dent or something?"

"And what?" Bird scoffed with her arms folded over her chest, "Ask him to have his office drop the charges against Jim? Yeah, that would go over spectacularly."

Not only was her friendship and deepening bond with Jim the reason for many fights when she was engaged to Harvey Dent, but if the DA's office had enough evidence to let a case go to trial then his hands would be tied. He was just doing his job.

"Look, crazy eyes, clearly you're not grasping how serious this is." Bullock breathed, "He's a cop, if this things go to trial and he loses… the only way he'll be leaving Blackgate is in a body bag."

•••

* * *

 **A/N- So, I know it hasn't been all that long since my last update, but you guys don't mind fast updates, right? Haha.  
I've got a busy week ahead and doubt I'll be online much or at all, and wanted to go ahead and get the chapter posted.  
**

 **Thanks to: SmellYourScentForMiles, IAmZeeChloe, DancingDorisDAy, Love. Fiction. 2017, Carliza, PetrovaLover, Katniss789, Shadow knight1121, Munyue, Amelia, xxXWolfLullaby, Feldman and the Guest who were awesome enough to review since my last chapter.**

 **Looks like Jim's headed to prison and anyone who's watched season 2 of Gotham knows that his and Lee's relationship doesn't survive his incarceration...  
**

 **Thank you for reading. I hope you all really liked the new chapter and I hope you'll take the time to leave a review and let me know your thoughts.**


	22. Violent Creatures

**XXII**

" _When truth is buried underground it grows, it chokes, it gathers such an explosive force that on the day it bursts out, it blows up everything with it."- Émile Zola_

* * *

•••

"Jim!" Bird called out as she jumped up from where she'd been sitting on the bench against the wall in one of the holding cell rooms at the jail.

It was just earlier that morning that the judge had denied bail and set the trial date for Officer Pinkney's homicide case to kick off the following week.

"Bird?" Jim walked over to the cell bars to meet here where she stood and questioned, "How did you get back here?"

He wasn't allowed any visitors.

"Jim, please." Bird's replied with one her perfectly sculpted eyebrows climbing up into an arch, "I can toss around the Wayne and Falcone names, and if that doesn't work enough money usually seals the deal."

"What happened?" She demanded to know, her eyes darting back and forth over his exhausted expression.

"I'm being framed-"

"Yeah, I know that much." She cut him off, and made sure none of the guards were lingering in the room before adding, "You feel bad over what happened with Galavan. I know there is no way you woke up and decided one day to kill a fellow cop."

Jim let out a small sigh, he wasn't sure how much time her money had bought them, but he had no doubt it wouldn't be near long enough for him to explain everything that had happened.

There was a bomb threat at a local art gallery and he'd used a crowbar to open a locker there.  
Later that night, Bullock had called to tell him that the bomb had been remotely denoted and they'd lucked out on being able to trace the number used to a pay phone in an apartment building.

Not being able to sleep, Jim had went to the building to see the phone that had been used and if there were any cameras nearby that might have caught the person responsible.  
Only when he got there one of the apartment doors was standing wide open, worried that someone may have been hurt or in need of help, Jim announced his title went inside -to find Pinkney dead on the floor with the side of his head bashed in.

As if that wasn't bad enough, he'd only been there a few minutes when Barnes showed up.  
He said he'd gotten a message that Pinkney needed to talk to him outside of work because of some information he'd uncovered about Jim.

The final nails in the coffin was when the crowbar used to bludgeon Pinkney was found under the couch in the apartment, with Jim's fingerprints on the murder weapon.  
Then the document that had showed the traced number from the bomb caller disappeared and the only one to back Jim's story of why he was at the apartment was Bullock.

The entire thing was elaborately planned out.

Just the idea alone that someone lifted the crowbar he'd touched at a crime scene, used it to kill someone and then was able to lock down every other detail to make him look guilty was madness.

"Talk to me." Bird pleaded, stepping closer and holding onto the bars with his silence leaving her more concerned with every passing second, "How bad is it?"

"Bad." Jim finally answered, raising his head to face her again as she stared at him through the bars, "All the evidence against me is solid."  
If he weren't at the center of the investigation and was instead working it, there would be no doubt in his mind with all of the evidence.

"Okay, but it's all wrong." Bird was quick to answer, "So there has to be a way out of this. Just…" Seeming flustered she shook her head, "Tell me what we do now."

"Do you need a lawyer? Or maybe I can-"

"No, I've got council already." He admitted.

"One of the union reps?" She scoffed, "Jim, those guys are used to fighting trials about evidence tampering or police brutality. This is way bigger than that-"

"I have to trust the system." He argued with her.  
This was the very justice system that he'd made a career out of upholding and now he needed to put his faith in it, hope that the truth would somehow come out and he'd be cleared of all charges.

"The system is broken!" Bird cried out with her face contorted in anger.

It wasn't all that long ago that she, herself, had been framed for a crime, but at least she had sense enough to hire a good lawyer.

Whatever reasoning Jim and Oswald both had for refusing her offer of help fell somewhere far beyond her realm of understanding.

"Fine. No lawyer then." She shook her head, "Tell me what to do then."

"Nothing." Jim answered with a broken expression, "There isn't anything you can do."

"I don't think you're thinking straight…" She accused, "I know that given our… history, this probably is a little strange coming from me. But you're engaged, Jim. Lee is pregnant. So how can you just be standing here willing to spend the rest of your life behind bars for something you didn't even do?"

Jim closed his eyes as his head hung forward in shame.  
She wasn't saying anything that hadn't been keeping his stomach tied in knots, but there wasn't much he could do.

The thoughts had also crossed his mind that maybe Lee and their unborn child would be better off without him.

He devoted his life and career into trying to make Gotham a safer place and in the midst of that he'd lost himself.  
Turned to criminals for help in taking down bigger players in the crime game.

He may not have killed Carl Pinkney, but he'd certainly committed crimes in the name and notion of a greater good and maybe he did deserve to be punished for that.

He was nowhere near innocent.

"I saw the interview you did." He changed the subject with small nod to the side, "On the news."

Bird's expression scrunched up even more as she stared back at him.

He'd been so preoccupied with finding Bruce and stopping him from killing Malone that he hadn't even noticed Bird's change in appearance when they saw each other again.

In fact, it wasn't until he was watching her on TV that he noticed the change; not just in her hair and clothes, but in the way she carried herself.

The way her smile grew far closer to lighting up her entire face than it used to.

She was already an adult when they'd first crossed paths, but she'd done more growing up over the last few years than she'd accomplished in almost all of her life.

"I thought you were great." He added, somehow pulling his lips up into an attempt a smile through the sadness and weight crushing down on him, "I like this new you."

"I'm still me."  
Her voice was so quite he could hardly hear her, "Just in shiny new packaging."

"No." He shook his head and cleared his throat, "You've come a long way."

In many ways she was the same and in just as many ways she was someone other than the Bird he'd known.  
Maybe in another life he could have gotten to know this Bird better, but the only life he had was the one crumbling apart around him.

He felt like she was also better off without him in her life.  
Ironic, that her life was starting to come together at the same time his was in shambles.

"Uh-uh." Bird protested, "I don't like this, because this is starting to sound a hell of a lot like goodbye and I don't handle those so well."

"You've got the chance to change things in Gotham." Jim said out loud the very thing he'd thought when he watched her interview on T.V, "I hope you use it for good."

Both of their attention was drawn back to the door opening to hallway back behind the visiting cell, leading back further into the jail.

When one of the guards stepped into sight and nodded at him, letting him know it was time to go back to his own cell, Jim turned and started to walk towards the door.

"Jim!" Bird yelled, practically smashing herself against the bars with a helpless expression on her face as she watched him leave without turning back around.

With a sigh, she dropped her head forward where it hit heavily with a metal bar pressed to the center of her forehead with a somber revelation; you can't help someone who won't help themselves.

•••

"Lady Wayne!"

Bird appeared at the top of the stairs mere moments after hearing her name called, "Yeah?"

"I think you'd better come down here." Alfred said as he stepped into view and nodded with his head towards the door.

"What's going on?" She asked as her bare feet lightly padded against the stairs on her way down.

It wasn't until she was on the first floor that she caught sight of who was at the door.

"Oswald?"

"Bird!" He exclaimed.  
His entire face lit up the moment he laid eyes on his best friend again.

She'd heard that he'd been released from Arkham early that morning, but she'd had no way to contact him.

"Oswald…" She breathed stepping closer and looking him over.  
He was dressed in the same ill fitting clothes he'd been wearing from when he was hiding out on the streets and running from the police when he was wanted for Galavan's murder.

Most troubling of all though, was how he was splattered in a dark sticky substance and then covered from his hat to shoes in white puffy feathers.

"Yes." He nervously laughed as he looked down at his clothes and felt his cheeks darken from embarrassment, "I hope you'll excuse my disheveled state. I would have cleaned up before coming to see you, but… I didn't have anywhere to go for that."

Bird looked over to Alfred who gave a small shrug and keep his posture straight with his arms behind his back as he suspiciously eyed the defeated crime lord.

"I would hug you." Oswald continued to speak and fill up the silence when his friend was at a loss for words, "But I wouldn't want to ruin your dress-"

His sentence ended in a pained groan as Bird lunged forward and tightly wrapped her arms around him.

The smile on his lips grew and his eyes slowly shut as he held onto her just as tightly.  
For the first time in what felt like years he was finally able to get a deep breath; one filled with the all too familiar scent of her favorite shampoo.

Alfred let out a audible sigh to show his distaste for the scene in front of him as the friends clutched onto each other as if they were aboard a raft that was quickly sinking.

When he'd answered the door and saw Oswald, his first thought was to say Bird wasn't there and shoo him off before she saw him.

But he knew all too well that there would hell to pay from the eldest Wayne when she'd found out. That and he was happy to have her back home at Wayne Manor and didn't want to give her cause to take off again.

So, just like he'd trusted in Bruce to make the right decisions; he was trusting that the return of her longtime best friend wouldn't completely derail all of the choices she'd been making.

She was on the path to becoming a public figure and was doing a remarkable job of picking up all the pieces her life had been reduced to.

The trust he was trying to place in her didn't ease his nerves when it came to her reunion with Oswald at all though and if her parents were still living, they would have never let him into the house.

Thomas Wayne had made his negative feelings towards Oswald well known.  
Alfred couldn't even begin to count the number of times Thomas had vented to him about the blame he placed on Oswald for Bird's change in behavior.

He'd went to his grave entirely convinced that if his daughter had never crossed paths with Cobblepot then she'd have set out on an entirely different course in life.

Martha felt the same way, but she was quieter in her disdain for him and their friendship for fear of driving a bigger wedge between herself and Bird.

"Who did this to you?" She demanded to know when she finally stepped back and got another look at him.

"Butch and Tabitha." Oswald admitted, flinching when Bird reached up and plucked a feather off of the side of his face, "Pretty nice of them, considering."

"Considering?" She immediately jumped to anger, "Considering what?"

"Well, you know, everything I've done to them." He reasoned.

Bird's mouth hung open and she looked back over to Alfred, who again gave another shrug.

"I got off easy, really." Oswald continued, trying to calm Bird down and ease her mind, "They could have killed me, but Butch said we'd all lost something and they let me go."

Bird's eyebrows furrowed, she remembered saying the exact same thing to Butch the day she went there and agreed to let them both live.

"Right, very well." Alfred cleared his throat and spoke up when Bird still couldn't locate her words, "Last I heard, Mr. Cobblepot, you were locked away in Arkham. What's happened to that, hmm?"

"I'm sane!" Oswald beamed another smile and quickly got to work on pulling a folded up paper from his pocket and proudly presented it, "I have a certificate to prove it."

"A piece of paper doesn't exactly prove your eggs aren't scrambled, now does it?" Alfred argued and earned himself a glare from Bird that could have melted the flesh from his bones.

"See?" He cheerfully said, adjusting his stance to alleviate some of the pressure off of his bad leg and held the paper out for Bird to see.

"I see…" Speaking in an unsure tone, she nodded, "That's, uh… that's really great…"

"Congratulations on your sanity." Alfred said, "But I think it'll be for the best if you just take your leave now-"

"Alfred!" Bird snapped.

"No, it's alright." Oswald was quick to say, "I'm sorry to intrude. I just wanted to see you."  
Pulling in a deep breath, he continued, "I'm a changed man. Changed for the better and I'm here to tell you that you can change too, Bird."

"Change?" She repeated back, her eyes darting over to Alfred for a moment before she looked back at Oswald and asked, "Are you feeling okay?"

"A little tired." He admitted, "Hungry; I haven't eaten since yesterday, aside from that I'm feeling very well, thank you for asking, Bird."

"You're welcome?" Her response came out sounding like a question and for one of the very first times she found herself at a loss for words in his presence.

Dismissing the uncomfortableness of the situation and trying to push aside her fears of what they may have done to his mind inside Arkham, Bird did her best to focus on the present time and the problems in front of her that she could fix, "Let's get you cleaned up, huh? And some food."

With an arm around his shoulders she started to lead him inside of the house until Alfred stopped her, standing in their way as he sternly said, "Lady Wayne, I hardly think this is appropriate."

"Why?" Bird asked nearly immediately copping an attitude with him, "It's not like Bruce is here right now."

"Sorry, but I'm going to have to put my foot down." Alfred cleared his throat and glanced to Oswald before looking back to Bird and pointing out, "This is your parents' house, is it not? And I think we both know they never would have allowed this."

"Very well." Bird agreed a little too quickly.  
Her reasoning soon became clear as she turned to Oswald and offered him a reassuring smile, "Wait for me outside. I'm going to grab a few things and I'll meet you out there."

"You're running off?" Alfred questioned just as Oswald walked outside and he was left alone with Bird again.

"You don't want Oswald here, fine. But I'm not leaving him to his own devices in the shape he's in. So if he can't stay here then I'm leaving." She spoke in a matter-of-fact tone, very familiar to the tone in which she'd use to try and get her way as a teenager.

"Lady Wayne-"

"Save it, Alfred. There isn't any way you're going to talk me out of this or guilt trip me over my parents memory." Bird called over her shoulder as she headed up the stairs to gather a few things and a set of keys to one of the cars at the house.

Alfred's head hung heavily forward as she disappeared from sight.

He wasn't entirely sure how much of Bird's behavior could be blamed on her friendship with Penguin, but he was positive the man was responsible for a good bit of it.

When she was a teenager, they could ground her and take her car keys away, check on her every few hours to make sure she hadn't sneaked off to run into the city.

But she was an adult, had been for years and there wasn't much he could other than hope she wouldn't let their friendship drag her back down into the depths of darkness.

•••

"Thank you for bringing me some of my clothes." Oswald gratefully said as he looked at Bird in the reflection of the extra tall mirror against the wall in the large hotel suite.

"I know there isn't much there, but when Victor and I went to see Butch, it was all I could find. I gathered up everything I could find still at the house that belonged to you and me. Most of it was already gone though." Bird answered with her pale glossed lips angling down into a frown.

"He's done well for himself." Oswald smiled, as he adjusted his bow tie and reached to where his hair was still drying from the bath he'd taken.

"Done well for himself." Bird nearly chocked on the words, "He stole from you -from both of us. He took your throne and now he's shacked up with Galavan's sister and-"

"He's our friend, Bird." Oswald finally turned to face where Bird was laying on one of the beds propped up on an elbow reading over the room service menu that she'd already ordered dinner from.

"We should be happy for him and all he's accomplished." He added.

Looking up to where he stood, Bird's face contorted, "Our friend? Maybe a year ago. But let's not forget how he practically handed me over to Galavan gift wrapped before leading you right into a trap where your mother was killed! How can be happy for his success after that?"

"By acknowledging the bad we've done to him." Oswald confidently replied, "Mainly what I've done to him."

Standing up and dropping the menu onto the bedside table, Bird hesitated to step closer as she stared at him. Feeling like the person she'd considered to be her best friend was now a complete stranger.

"How are you going to take back the city with an attitude like that?" She was barely able to whisper.

"I don't want to. Power corrupts and I had more than anyone should."

"So…" She breathed, "You're just going to let Butch play king?"

With an unstable laugh sliding from her lips, Bird looked up towards the ceiling and with wild arm movements exclaimed, "I took Victor with me and we cleaned house there. Killed every one of the men who'd once swore loyalty to you and then turned around and pledged it again to Butch. I cleared out the traitors and swore that you were going to take your throne back-"

"You shouldn't have done that, Bird." Oswald's voice was soft with a somber and disappointed look on his freshly washed face, "I… I can't judge you for what you've done because I was a violent creature once too, Bird. But I've been shown a different path and I've changed."

"What did Strange do to you…" Her voice trailed off and the expression on her face fell somewhere between utter disbelief and horror.

"Therapy." Oswald tried to smile, but the corners of mouth started to twitch nearly uncontrollably and he pinned his eyes shut as his mind was flooded with the horrifying images of him killing his own mother, images that Strange that forced him to live through as one of the various treatments he called therapy; but which felt far more like torture, "Professor Strange…"  
Oswald stuttered, "He… h-he fixed me. I- I'm cured now, Bird."

Bird's face fell even further as she watched him.  
She had no idea what this doctor did him, but for someone who was claiming to be fixed, Oswald looked far more broken than she remembered.

"Bird?" He asked, his eyes growing wide at the emotion displayed on her face, "What… what's wrong? You look…"

Walking up to where she stood he looked at her with such an inquisitive look that it resembled the wonder on a child's face as they begin to try and understand the world around them, he realized, "You look so sad."

"I am sad." Bird blinked, avoiding eye contact with him.

The longer she looked at him and spoke to him, the more she realized he wasn't at all the person she'd shared her deepest bond with.

She didn't know him anymore and that hurt deeper than she could have ever imagined.

"Why?" Oswald asked as he reached down and gently took her hands in his, "We're together once again. What's there to be sad about?"

Pulling her hands from his grip, Bird turned and put her back to him while she pulled in a shaky breath and stammered out, "I… I don't know what to do here. Oswald? Should I try and find someone to reverse what Strange has done? Is this just how you are now -forever? I just… I don't know."

Spinning back around, her voice grew hoarse, "Are you happier like this?"

"I'm better." He offered up with a small shrug.

"But are you happy?" She repeated.

"You're standing here in front of me, how could I not be happy?" He gently answered with an almost sheepish smile, before his expression fell and he asked, "You don't feel the same?"

"I am happy to see you." She quickly answered, "I'm happy that you're out of Arkham and free once again. But right now, I am more scared than anything."

"Of me?" His eyebrows furrowed and he quickly took a step backwards.  
When he'd stopped by to see Edward Nygma, someone else he'd considered a friend, he'd been met with a less than friendly reception.

' _To be honest the new you is kind of freaking me out.'_ Were Nygma's exact words to him just before he'd led him out the door and sent him on his way.

The last thing on earth Oswald had wanted to do was freak his friends out, especially Bird.

"No." Bird's forehead wrinkled, "I'm scared for you, Oswald. You still have countless enemies out there and when they find out you're an easy target now…us being violent creatures, as you said, is what keeps them at bay."

"I'm scared that someone is going to come after you when I'm not here to protect you."

"Oh, Bird." Oswald's cheeks darkened, "My sweet Bird, always trying to keep me safe."

"But you need not worry." He hand his hand up, "If someone I've wronged comes looking for me then I'll be the voice of reason. I'll make things right."

"There is no reasoning with most of them!" She unintentionally yelled and caused him to jump at her sudden outburst, "They won't care that your certificate says your sane. They won't care about any of it, they will simply be out for their pound of flesh and if your only tactic to fight back is trying to reason with them, then you're going to pay in blood. Blood, Oswald, your blood!"

"I don't believe that." He argued with her, "If I can change then anyone can."

"Oh my god…" She rubbed her forehead and finally dropped her arm back to her side as she said, "Not everyone wants to change."

"You do -you, you did." Oswald stammered with a look of pain and guilt washing out his sharp features, "You wanted so much to change and I was angry with you for that. I was wrong, Bird. I should have been happy for you. That's what friends do, they should be happy to see each other getting the things they wanted and deserved. Instead of acting like a true friend, I resented you."

"Truth be told." Oswald's voice grew even more unsteady as he admitted, "I was jealous. I felt as though Harvey Dent was getting everything I wanted-"

"Oswald." Bird warned, her head tilted to the side as she shook it from side-to-side in an attempt to get him to stop talking.

"It's the truth." Oswald spoke up with his voice growing more nasally than usual, "I'd often times look at you as my most prized possession; something to own and that was wrong. I couldn't accept your relationship and new life with Harvey Dent because I loved you then and I love you now-"

"Shh!" Bird cupped a hand over his mouth as if she had the ability to push the confession back between his lips, "We don't have to talk about that now. It's irrelevant. Things didn't work out with Harvey, so…"

Realizing how uncomfortable she seemed to be getting, Oswald gave a nod and waited until Bird cautiously removed her hand from his mouth before he tried to speak again, "I just wanted to apologize for how I treated you when you said you wanted a life outside of crime."

"Noted." Bird blew out a breath and gave a sharp nod, "But for the record, you were right. You tried to tell me that he didn't love me for everything that I was and that he wanted to change me, but I didn't want to see it back then. For whatever reason, I was more than willing to bend until I broke rather than admit the truth and I won't do that again -for anyone."

With his eyebrows lowering upon realizing that last line was aimed directly at him, Oswald questioned, "But you will try to see how you can change for the better, as I have?"

"We've done some bad things, Oswald." Bird paused, "But we were never the worst of the worst."

"We've been ruthless." He argued.

"We had to be." She reasoned, "If we were anything less than that neither of us would be alive today."

"Maybe." Oswald softly answered, "But I've seen the error of my ways and it is my hope that you will too."

"Room service."  
A voice called through the door after a quick knock.

"There's dinner." Bird almost tripped over her own feet to go answer the door, "Let's just bench this conversation topic for now, okay?"

"As you wish, Bird." Oswald nodded in defeat as he struggled to smile when she turned back to look at him.

••• **weeks later•••**

"Care for a spot of tea?"

Bird looked over her shoulder from where she'd just folded up one of her mother's sweaters and placed it in the donation box.

"No thank you, Alfred." Bird quietly answered, before she stepped back into her parent's large walk in closet and returned with another arm full of clothes and dropped them on the bed.

"Very well." Alfred said as he poured himself a cup of tea from the tray he'd carried into the master bedroom.

"Would you like some help then?" He offered.

"No." She answered, as she held up a beige blouse with gold beading around the neckline before pulling it off the hanger and beginning to fold it up before placing it in the same box as the sweater.

Alfred pulled in a deep breath and leaned against the wall when it started to feel like the tea was souring on his stomach.

Over the course of the last few weeks she'd barely said more than a handful of words to him, which usually wasn't cause for concern when she was angry at him.

But this was different, she didn't seem to be mad at him.

She's was upset about something, only instead of talking about what was bothering her, she'd been keeping everything in.

She hadn't left the house in over a week and had been beating him to the kitchen to cook their meals and he'd even caught her cleaning to fill up her time and keep her mind off of whatever was bothering her.

Now, she'd started the task of cleaning out her parent's bedroom and he hadn't seen or heard from her in the last ten hours.

"Want to tell me whats on your mind?" He asked.

Bird didn't look over at him as she folded up a pair of her mom's dress pants and dropped them into the donation box.

She didn't have the slightest clue of where to begin with everything that was currently wrong in her life.

"Lady Wayne?" Alfred asked with concern flooding his tone.

Looking over to him her mouth hung slightly open while she tried to locate the correct words, only it wasn't happening for her.

With a weak shrug, glanced over to the television set that was on the news station awaiting to hear the verdict in Jim's court case, before she picked up another shirt from the bed.

"Please talk to me." Alfred pleaded, as he grew more worried about her by the second, "What's happened?"

After she'd been sexually assaulted and nearly killed as a teenager, she'd been so traumatized that she couldn't speak a word for months after the fact.

Ever since, when life started to get too heavy a burden to carry she seemed to retreat into silence and fold in on her self.

"If you don't talk to me…" His voice trailed off when he realized he didn't have anything to finish it off with.

There wasn't anyone he could call.

Bruce had run off to the city weeks ago, Jim Gordon was currently on trial for murder and she hadn't mentioned Oswald since the day he'd showed up at Wayne Manor -not that he'd have any idea how to contact him anyways.

"Are you threatening me?" Bird's voice came out so monotone and defeated that it sounded alien to both of them.

"No, not at all, Lady Wayne." Alfred assured her, "I was going to offer to call someone for you, only I…"

"Realized there isn't anyone to call." Bird finished for him, before she disappeared back into the closet again.

It had been nearly two weeks since she'd last spoken to Oswald.  
After putting him up in one of Gotham's five star hotels, she'd gotten a call from him one day that he'd no longer be needing he hotel because he'd met his father and was going to live with him.

The news came as quite a shock considering that Oswald had told her his father had died before he was born -which was apparently a lie that his mother had told him.

Either way, her friend sounded genuinely happy and so she graciously wished him well and reminded him that she was only a phone call away if he needed anything at all.

He'd made her promise that she'd come for dinner to meet his father, Elijah Van Dahl, but so far Bird hadn't gotten around to it.

The last she'd heard from her eyes on the street was that Bruce and Selina had tried to steal money from Butch's nephew, Sonny Gilzean, and apparently Bruce had gotten the crap beat out of him for doing so.

Her first instinct was to go have Sonny beaten to within nearly an inch of his life to teach him a lesson.

After all, she'd never much cared for him anyways. Not since he'd came by Fish's club when she was working there and tried to hit on her and quickly went from charming to world class jerk within a matter of seconds when she rejected him.

But she'd stopped herself from reacting so quickly and so violently.  
For one, Bruce had stolen and if you're going to do the crime you got to be willing to accept the consequences.

Secondly, she couldn't forget the look on Oswald's face when he'd spoke of them being violent creatures.

She'd been to a few days of Jim's trial, but the entire ordeal was so draining that she couldn't bring herself to keep going back.

The evidence was stacked up in mountains against him and his union rep was a fish out of water in such a high profile case. Then there was the matter of seeing Lee sitting there crying from the beginning up until the very end of when they'd adjourn court for the day.

Worst of all, she felt like she'd let herself down.  
After nearly losing her life months ago, she was so sure she'd find something to live for. A cause to pour her all into.

A prospect which seemed promising at the beginning, especially after her interview had went so well with channel 82. But that was a dream that seemed to burn bright and die fast when she hadn't taken any other steps to do anything.

She'd received many offers of local organizations wanting her to be their public face and had even gotten offers to have a chair on community committees that she'd never even heard of before.

But when she'd found out the details, she'd learned that was really all they wanted her for, just for her Wayne name and face; and she wanted something more hands on.

She'd even considered trying to spearhead one of the many charities still bearing the Falcone name, but she wanted to be a part of something from the ground up.  
Not jump into someone's shadow.

Only, instead of putting in the work in to create something of her own, she'd had many days where the energy to begin such a process felt impossibly out of reach.

Alfred manged to choke down another small sip of tea and then set his cup back down on the tray and began to prepare Bird a cup intending to insist upon her drinking something, but before he could stir in the sugar there was a loud crash from the closet followed by a stream of profanities.

"Are you alright?" Alfred yelled as he darted into the closet to find Bird sitting on the floor with various papers and folder scattered on the floor and some broken glass by her legs.

"I'm fine." Bird answered, "I was trying to pull some boxes off the shelf and they were heavier than I expected…"

Her voice trailed off as she got to her knees and picked up the glass aquarium that now had a side busted out of it and her breath caught in her throat.  
It was her old fish tank.

The same one that she'd seen in the dream when she was fighting for her life and had gotten to speak to her dad again.

"I'll get the broom." Alfred said, before cautioning her to watch where she stepped in her socked feet.

But Bird was so lost in her head and thoughts that she didn't even hear him.

She hadn't seen that tank since she was a little kid, she had no idea her parents had even kept it.

It was then that she spotted her mother's hand writing on a manila folder under the broken pieces of glass.

Brushing them to the side, she picked the folder up and began to read the contents inside.

"I told you not to touch anything." Alfred sighed as he returned with the small hand-held broom and dust pan.  
He knelt down and started to sweep up the mess she'd made when he saw she was still reading the folder, "What you got there?"

"It's…" Bird skimmed through the pages, "It's a proposal for several women and children centers and shelters to be put up around the city."

"I remember that." Alfred said, looking at Bird as he recalled, "Your mum and dad were working on that not too long before they died. If I remember right, it was nearly ready to be pitched to the board."

"This would help a lot of people." Bird thought out loud as she continued to read over the plans.

"Indeed it would, Lady Wayne." Alfred agreed with a smile forming on his lips.

"When Bruce comes home we should show him this. He could take it to the board." Bird suggested.

"Or, you could take it yourself."

"Yeah." Bird scoffed, "Remember that day I signed my shares of the company over to Bruce?"

"You're still a Wayne." He reminded her, "And due to your recent success in the news, I think you'd be just the person to push a plan like that through the right channels."

He didn't say it out loud, but he was also hoping that a huge project such as that might help keep her distracted and busy versus wandering through life as aimlessly as she seemed to be the recent weeks.

Both she and Bruce always seemed to stumble and lose their way when they weren't busy and working towards a goal.

"You really think so?" Bird asked, looking up to him as he got to his feet.

"Yes, I do." He answered honestly before extending his hand to her.

Once she let him help her to her feet, she walked out into the room and laid the folder on the dresser as she thought of how soon she'd have to call Erin and get her legal opinion on the proposal and see if she had any advice on what to do next.

" _The four week murder trail of Detective James Gordon concluded just minutes ago."_

Coming to a stop, Bird whirled around to face the T. V screen where she saw Jim being led down the courthouse stairs in cuffs by uniformed officers as cameras flashed like lightening from all around.

" _With the jury returning a unanimous verdict of guilty, the judge handed down the maximum sentence of forty years to be served at Blackgate Penitentury. The Jury was unanimous in their decision after deliberating less than twenty-four hours. District Attorney Harvey Dent was not available for comment."_

"Forty years…" Bird repeated back to the T.V screen before realizing under breath, "He'll be in his seventies before he gets out."

It was then that Bullock's words echoed around in her head, that the only way Jim would leave Blackgate would be in a body bag.

Stepping forward, Bird shut the T.V off, unable to stomach another minute of the reporters going back over the evidence presented against him a trial.

"Care for that tea now?" Alfred asked, with a somber expression of his own.

"No." Bird shook her head back and forth.

"I, um, I should finish with the closet. There's, uh…" She sniffed and rubbed her nose, "There's this organization that gathers men and women's dress clothes to help dress the homeless for job interviews and I think that's what mom and dad would have wanted."

"Very well." Alfred agreed. Standing for a moment with his hands behind his back before calling out, "I'll just start on your dad's side of the closet then."

"You don't have to-" Bird started to say, but he didn't give her a chance, "Might as well, eh? Better than having them sitting here taking up dust."

It was nearly a half hour later that the land line started to ring and Alfred excused himself to answer the call.

Appearing back in the doorway of the room with the portable phone held to his chest he announced, "It's Detective Gordon."

Bird dropped the dress she'd been inspecting onto the bed and quickly walked over to take the phone from him.

"Jim? I just saw the news…" She breathed as she clutched the phone to the side of her face.

•••

Lee stood with a hand over her stomach and looked around the chipped white paint in the hallway before glancing back over to where Bird was finishing up with bribing a few of the guards from the local jail where Jim was being held while his transport of Blackgate was being secured.

The time that had passed since the guilty verdict had been handed down hadn't felt real to her.  
It was as though time was standing still and yet somehow racing at the same time.

This wasn't supposed to be how it turned out.  
Jim didn't kill Officer Pinkney and yet here he was sentenced to serve the next forty years of his life behind bars for that very crime.

"Come on." Bird said as she turned back to face Lee, but the other woman didn't respond; just stared at her like she couldn't process the English language anymore.

Lee had barely gotten in the door of her apartment and took her coat off after the sentencing, when there was a knock.

She wasn't sure who she had expected to be waiting on the other side, but she sure didn't expect to see Bird standing there.  
From there she'd explained that Jim had called her and asked her to get Lee in to see him.

It wasn't until they'd reached the jail and Bird started to pay people off that it finally made sense why out of everyone Jim had called her.

Lee looked down when she realized she was moving, her legs felt wobbly and like they weren't even connected to the rest of her body. She wasn't even sure how she was moving on her own until she looked over to see Bird had a hold on her coat sleeve was quite literally pulling her down the hallway.

They walked into a room with a large red sign on the wall just inside of a cell that read 'holding cell 2' and Lee pulled her sleeve away from Bird.

"How did you know that would work?" Lee questioned, eyeing her as she slowly lowered herself down into a seat on the metal bench against the wall.

"They're guards at a county jail." Bird reasoned, "You know how many hours they'd have to put in to come close to making what I just offered?"

"Sure." Lee nodded, rubbing her cold hands over her legs as she nervously watched the empty cell waiting for when they'd bring Jim out. Pulling in a breath she questioned, "You've been before haven't you?"

When Bird didn't answer, Lee furthered her one sided guessing game, "To see Jim?"

It was then that the loud buzzer sounded and the door at the back of the cell opened and they led Jim inside with cuffs around his wrists and chains down to where they were attached around his ankles.

Bird stood in place and swallowed hard as she watched him while Lee jumped to her feet as quickly as possible and darted to the bars.

"Thank you." Jim cleared his throat as he looked to Bird with an appreciative nod.

Biting down on her lip, she nodded back, before turning to leave the room and give them some privacy, though she could still hear everything from where she stood leaned against the wall just outside of the doorway.

"Lee…" Jim started to say, but she was quick to assure him, "We're gonna fight this."

When he didn't second the testament, she repeated, "Did you hear me? We're going to fight this? No matter what it takes."

Running his tongue over his lips, Jim pointed out, "The evidence isn't going to change."

"You're innocent." She nearly yelled in an out burst.

"I'm far from innocent. We both know that."

"So, what? We just give up?"

"We move on." Jim said, each word beating his heart down deeper into hell with a sledge hammer force.

"How?" Lee asked, "Move on? Move onto what?"  
Seeing the look on his face she realized, "You mean…me? You mean I move on."

Bird's eyebrows lowered and she glanced down the hallway to where the guards she'd just paid were standing a group taking amongst themselves.

"I've thought long and hard about this." Jim continued, but Lee protested.

"You have to listen to me." He pleaded.

"I'm tired of listening!" She yelled.  
All she'd done was trust in and listen to him and every single time she did it felt like she'd broken her own heart.

He'd promised her time and time again that things would change, that they'd get better, but they never did.  
His last promise to her was that now that Galavan was dead, they could finally move one and start the life together that he'd promised when he'd given her a ring and asked for her hand.

Only now here they stood, staring at each other through a set of bars with just minutes on the clock until the time Bird had paid for would run out and he'd been bused away to Blackgate; and she'd be left to try and clean up the mess he'd left for her and their unborn child.

"It's not fair!" Lee cried, her devastating sliding into anger that he wasn't willing to keep fighting.  
He looked broken. Completely done in and he was simply lying down to take the beating instead of fighting for her and their baby.

Tears poured down her cheeks and Lee asked, "How can you not be with us?"

Reaching through the bars she grabbed onto his cuffed wrists and forced him to lay his palm against her swollen stomach, as she fought to speak, "Birthdays and first steps and skinned knees and everything…"

"What, what, visits through bars and-and not knowing when the phone is gonna ring in the middle of the night to tell me when you're…" She stopped herself from saying what she couldn't even bring herself to think.

"I don't want that for either of you. You still have a chance at happiness. You need to go somewhere. Far away from here. Somewhere fit to raise our child. Start a new life. Forget I exist. It's the only way either one of us survives this." He said, making a life changing decision for them both without her say in the matter.

"No, Jim!" Lee cried, her body shook and she strained trying to reach for him again through the bars, but he moved to the back of the cell where the guards had opened the door to remove him.

"Don't try to contact me again. I won't reply. I'm sorry, Lee." He said, taking one last look at her before letting the guards lead him away, "I'm so, so sorry."

"No. Don't do this. Jim, don't do this! I love you!" Lee screamed out, her pain and sobs seeming to echo through the whole building.

Bird looked up to the harsh ceiling lighting and blinked back some tears of her own.

The sounds of Lee's earthshaking sobs were still pouring out of the room and Bird needed to get her self under complete control before she could even begin to go into the room and get Lee out of there to drive her back to her apartment.

She understood why Jim had called her, but she found herself wishing she hadn't taken the call or been so willing to jump and help him when he'd asked her to bring Lee there.

•••

Bullock let out a sigh as he opened the door to his apartment building and saw a nearly empty bottle of alcohol laying just inside the threshold.

From the looks of it, someone just might be having a worse night than him.

Even so, if he hadn't been looking where he was going then he could have tripped and broken his neck. He started to lean over to pick the glass bottle up, but then ended up just kicking it over to the side against the wall instead.

He was far too tired to deal with that.

After riding with Jim on the transport to Blackgate, he'd felt broken.  
Torn to shreds by the kind of wounds that even stopping at the corner bar couldn't begin to patch up.

Taking his hat off, he rubbed his forehead and turned the corner leading to the hallway where his apartment was located.

He came to an abrupt stop when he saw someone on the floor leaned against his apartment door.

"Ah, hell…" Bullock breathed when he squinted in the lighting to see it was Bird who was sitting there waiting on him.

"I can't deal with this." He continued to speak to himself as he continued on the trek to his door.  
He had no idea what kind of crazy she was there to unleash, but he was still trying to figure out how the hell he was going to find it in him to roll out of bed and go to work the next morning.

His steps slowed when he noticed another bottle of the exact same kind of alcohol he'd nearly tripped over clutched in her hand. Apparently, she'd been the one having a worse night than him.

Leaning down some he observed that her eyes appeared to be closed; she'd possibly already passed out.

Good riddance, he thought to himself, it didn't feel like all that long ago Jim was telling him how he'd gone off in the middle of the night to pick her up when she'd had too much to drink and had been a complete nightmare. Up to and including trying to jump from the moving car.

Whatever mess she'd brought to his doorstep was something he sure didn't need, especially on a night like this.

The idea of a hotel room started to sound better by the minute. Clean sheets, a fully stocked mini bar and premium cable.  
It was practically calling his name.

"I see you."

"Damn it." He grumbled as he heard Bird's slurred words right as he turned to leave.

"Just going to leave me here, Bullock?" Bird complained with a whine in her tone that irked him like nails down a chalkboard, "You're a cop. Don't you know how dangerous this city is at night for a female."

"You seem like the type who can handle yourself." He remarked while he watched her struggle to get to her feet, but all she was succeeding in doing was splashing liquor from her open bottle all over the carpeted hallway.

"What the hell are you doing here?" He questioned before his forehead lined and his nose wrinkled, "How do you even know where I live?"

"I know lots of things." She practically yelled with a grunt as she finally managed to get to her feet only to have the hallway morph into something comparable to looking in a fun-house mirror.

Pinning her eyes shut she gripped onto the wall and did her best to stay standing.

"I don't know how to help him." She admitted, taking another swig from what was left in the bottle and in her sloppy movements some ran from the corners of her mouth.  
Roughly using the back of her hand she wiped her mouth and repeated, "I don't know how to help him."

"Who?" Bullock questioned, keeping a eye on her as he took his keys from his pocket and got to work on unlocking his apartment door.

"Jim. Oswald. My brother." She motioned with her free hand through the air before jabbing a finger into his shoulder and accusing, "You… men… you're all a mess."

"Says the girl who's camped outside of my apartment with a bottle of Jack." Bullock accused back as he swatted her hand away from his shoulder where he was sure he was going to wake up with a bruise in the perfect shape of her fingerprint.

"You're all soooo proud!" She yelled, "Can't accept help-"

"Hey!" He yelled mirroring how loud she'd gotten, "Get outa here, crazy eyes. I don't know what's gotten into you, but my partner just got a forty year sentence and I'm not sure how this ended up being a 'poor you' situation, but Jim's the one I'm worried about. Okay? So scram."

With that he opened his apartment door and quickly maneuvered inside to shut the door behind him before she had the chance to stumble inside.

Bird's mouth hung open as she stared at the dark wooden door that had just been slammed in her face, just mere inches in front of her nose.

"Hey!" She shrieked, slamming her open palms against the door, "That was rude!"

"Bullock!" She continued to try and wake everyone up in the entire building while resorting to now beating on the door with the sides of her fists, "Harvey, don't leave me out here!"

"I just wanna…I…I just wanna know how he is. You saw him off to Blackgate, right? Harvey!"

The door to the apartment opened so quick that Bird was barely able to catch herself against the frame to keep from falling inside.

"Keep it down, would you?" He gruffly said, "I got neighbors, you know."

Lazily nodding and moving her lips around as if she couldn't feel them for a few seconds, Bird placed a hand to the side of her mouth as if she was about to tell a secret and loudly whispered, "Sorry."

"Yeah. Yeah." Bullock sighed, "Of course you are."

"How is he?" She slurred, still clutching onto the open door frame for balance.

"How is he-" He repeated the question back with a scoff, "He's not good, Bird. He's not good."

"I tried to help him." She admitted, pushing off the wall to help propel her over to where she saw an old plaid print couch, "He wouldn't let me. I… I tried to tell him that union lawyer couldn't hack it, but nooooo."

Bullock shut the door behind her and looked over to where she was now sitting on the end of the couch as if she had been a welcomed guest.  
He shook his head.

This girl didn't wouldn't know a boundary if it slapped her in the face.

"Yeah, well, I get the impression he thinks this is karma or something. He didn't kill Pinkney, but the boy scout has a lot he does feel guilty for." Bullock said as he crossed the living room and sat down in one of the worn recliners across the coffee table from the couch.

"Galavan had it coming." Bird stated.  
She'd stood by that decision since the night it happened and even quite a while before then.

"I'm not saying he didn't." Bullock simply replied.  
In fact, the only thing that bothered him about Galavan's death was finding out that it had been Jim who'd pulled the trigger.

Some people in the world could handle something like that, but he'd watched it eat away at his partner.

Even so, he couldn't say he was surprised when Jim finally fessed up about what really happened that night.

Not after Galavan had been arrested and let go once already. A man like that, with his influence and means would be impossible to keep incarcerated in a city as corrupt as Gotham.

But no matter how many times Jim toted the tag line of how he couldn't risk Galavan going free again, Bullock knew there was more to it.

Revenge.  
One of the oldest motives in the book.

Jim had been different since the night they'd all thought Bird had died.  
After all, she'd tried to tell him that Galavan was the one behind it all and he didn't listen. He'd turned his back on her when she needed him, or anyone at all the most.

It had burned like acid eating him alive from the inside out that he'd stood there protecting Galavan while Bird had been shot.

"What do we do now? How are we supposed to him now?" Bird asked, leaning forward and resting her head in her hands.

Bullock raised a brow at how suddenly this had turned into a 'we' problem.

"I don't know." He sighed, leaning further back into the aged fabric of the chair and resting his head, "Find the person -or group responsible."

"I don't know how." Bird angrily snapped.  
As if she hadn't already thought that herself.

"Yeah. Me either."

Since the night Jim had been arrested, Bullock had poured everything he had into trying to clear Jim's name and had quickly seen what an unachievable task it would be.

The way all of the evidence was air tight and quickly piling up seemed like something from a movie and not real life.  
Whoever was behind it had to have been a genius; that was the only thing he was sure of; well, that and his partner was innocent.

"Forty years…" Bird breathed, her voice coming out muffled against her hands while she rubbed her face, "Is a very, very, very long time."

With a nod, Bullock pulled the flask from his pocket and downed a swig.  
Forty years was indeed a very long time.

But this was Blackgate and Jim had put a good number of the inmates away in there.  
News had probably already spread that -that's where he'd be serving his time, which meant the other prisoners were already smelling blood in the water.

No, there was no way Jim was actually going to serve that forty years.  
If he couldn't find a way to get his partner out of there then as he told Bird before, Jim would be leaving that place in a body bag.

Rubbing her fingers through her hair, Bird groaned.  
It wasn't just her head that hurt; it was her brain that was aching too.  
Her mind hadn't shut off in what felt like forever and all she'd wanted was a break.

Just a moment of silence, but everything was too loud.

Considering all that had happened and up until Bird made it to the corner liquor store, she thought she'd been doing good.  
That she'd been handling her situations well.

Every minute of every day she was worried about the trouble her brother might end up getting into on the streets. Even hanging around Selina, he still didn't posses even a quarter of the street smarts he'd need to survive in a city like Gotham.

She still wasn't sure what Professor Strange did to Oswald, but she was left feeling like she'd lost her best friend. That and how he was now trying to tell her she needed to turn her life around when he'd been so opposed to it in the past.  
He, who probably had more skeletons in his closet than she did.

Now, Jim was in prison and she knew he didn't stand much of a chance inside those gates.

Still, even feeling like she'd drowning in life all over again, she'd done her best to hold it together.

Tried to keep her mind as busy as her hands. She'd been cooking and cleaning to help the minute hand speed up.  
In the nearly two years since their parents had been killed, Bruce hadn't been able to start cleaning out the master bedroom and so that became Bird's new project.

If she didn't leave Wayne Manor than she had less chance of getting herself into trouble.  
Not to mention it avoided the situations where people had been coming up to her on the streets to strike up conversations and tell her how they loved her interview with channel 82.

That only served as a reminder that even though everything was supposed to be different now; deep down she was starting to feel as just as lost as she'd been before Galavan ever entered her life.

All things considered, she'd been doing better than she'd even expected out of herself.  
That was until Jim called and asked her to get Lee into see him.

Always ready to help him, she'd agreed and then was left to stand outside of the room while he shattered Lee's heart.

As if that wasn't bad enough, she then had to drive Lee back to her apartment -which was quiet. Even if awkwardly so.

But it was after Bird made sure Lee made it back inside her apartment that things took a turn.

The doctor blew up at her.  
Letting out every ounce of anger she hadn't gotten to express to Jim for how their love and life together had failed -every ounce of that land on Bird's shoulders.

Going so far as blaming her for nearly everything that had gone sour in her relationship.

In truth, Lee had never been entirely comfortable with how close Bird and Jim seemed to be -but she loved and trusted him. So it wasn't something she'd push or choose to fight about.

But then Bird was framed and ended up in Arkham and Lee found herself eating more meals by herself while Jim chose to spend time signing into the visitors log at the asylum.

She'd thought that had interrupted their lives and distracted him; but it was nothing compared to the change in him when they'd all thought Bird was dead.

Countless sleepless nights and his being overwhelmed by such a deep sense of failure; nearly obsessing over the need to bring Galavan to justice.  
As if it could have brought her back.

The truth was that their relationship had been rocky for quite some time. On a course headed to disaster and deep down she knew that wasn't Bird's fault.  
But she was the one standing there when the floodgates opened and so she got the worst of it.

Bird didn't even remember leaving Lee's apartment really.  
She just knew she had to get out of there fast.

Very few people could have gotten away with talking to her in that manner.  
But seeing as how Lee was pregnant and clearly going through one of the worst nights of her entire life, Bird had taken the high road and simply walked away.

From there she'd intended on picking some more boxes and tape up from the store to continue cleaning out her parent's bedroom and give it a few hours before she'd planned on calling Bullock and asking how Jim's transfer went.

But she ended up trading in the home improvement store for a small liquor store on the corner and somewhere along the line realized she was in no condition to drive and ended up waiting for Bullock at his apartment.

Just another disastrous night in Gotham -where things never go as planned.

•••

* * *

 **A/N - Since we're heading into the holiday season, I wanted to wish all you the best!**

 **Thank you for reading. This chapter turned out a little longer than I'd expected, but it just kept flowing. Lol.**

 **An extra special thank you to: PetrovaLover, Amelia, Shadow knight1121, SmellYourScentForMiles, Love. Fiction. 2017, DancingDorisDay, Katniss789, chodofaggins, Munyue, IAmZeeChloe, Rasiel Hasu, Caroline and xxXWolfsLullablyXxx for reviewing!**

 **I really hope you'll take the time to review and let me know what you thought of the chapter. :)**


	23. To Family

**XXIII**

" _Just because everything is different doesn't mean anything has changed." - Irene Peter_

* * *

•••

"Stop saying that! There's always something you can do. A retrial… or have him transferred to another prison, for God's sake!"

Bird slowly opened her eyes before quickly laying her arm over her eyes trying to block out the sunlight she was met with.

She could hear Bullock arguing with someone, presumably over the phone, in the next room.

"You know what, Dent? Just keep doing what you always do, which is nothing!"

Bird moved the arm she'd placed over her eyes when she heard approaching footsteps.

Blinking lazily she watched the dust particles in the air reflected the sunlight like dull glitter.  
She could barely remember the events of the prior night. With the pounding in her head, she could barely form thoughts.

"That's some boyfriend you got." Bullock grumbled as he plopped down into the chair he'd ended up falling asleep in the night before and sat a drink carrier with two coffees down on the coffee table along with a white paper bag containing the couple pastries he'd picked up from around the corner.

"Ex." Bird groaned as she flailed and struggled to get sat up properly, "And his hands are tied-"

"Yeah. Yeah. Yeah." Bullock shook his head, "I already heard the spiel from Dent. Hands tied. Nothing he can do. Yada, yada, yada. It's all bologna if you ask me."

Running her hands through her tangled hair, Bird couldn't find the strength or mental process she'd need to argue with him.

"Is that for me?" She questioned, pointing towards the bakery bag.

"One of them." He nodded, barely looking up from scrolling the contact list in his phone. There had to be someone he could call a favor into to help Jim.

When he heard the rustle of the bag, he quickly added, "Paws off the jelly doughnut. That ones mine."

With a sigh, Bird pulled the other doughnut out of the bag and took a bite before she reached forward and plucked up one of the coffee's from the carrier and washed the bite of food down.

"Thanks." She said so quietly he could just barely hear her over the sounds of morning traffic on the street below.

"Welcome." He answered, eyeing her for a minute before he took a drink of his own coffee.

Bird had just finished her food when she spotted her purse on the floor next to her legs.  
Leaning down she picked it up and starting searching for her keys to no avail.

"Harvey?" Bird sighed, letting her purse fall to the floor with a thud from the full bottle of perfume inside, "Did I drive here last night?"

"Hope not." He answered, "You were barely able to walk."

"Great." She groaned.

Reaching up she rubbed her hands over her face and regretted the very moment she'd chose to drink the night before.

"Can, uh…" She sighed, "Do you have time to drive me home before you go to work?"

"I took a personal day." He admitted, finally closing his phone and giving up hope of finding someone with enough juice to pull the strings to get Jim out of Blackgate.

He'd had every intention of going in to his shift that day until he'd woke up in the chair with a pinch in his back and a crook in his neck.

For a moment, the day felt just like any other, that was until he spotted Bird passed out on the couch and realized just how real the events of the day before had been.

Jim Gordon was in Blackgate.  
It wasn't a nightmare. It was reality.

And the thought of walking into the police station and having to face Captain Barnes was more than he had the strength to do that day.  
For someone who claimed to think of Jim like a son, Barnes had been quick to turn on him.

The injustice of what was happening to his partner was enough to turn his stomach; especially with the lack of outrage that had followed the verdict.

From where he was sitting, he felt like the only one who actually cared about what happened to Jim.  
Well, him and Bird, but the latter wasn't going to be much help if she couldn't stay off the bottle.

"Okay, well, can you drive me home?" Bird restated her question before adding in, "Please?"

"I've got places to be." He dismissed, "Got an old buddy who works at Blackgate. He's gonna get Jim visitation today."

"How is Jim?" Bird asked the same question she'd asked him about a million times the night before.

"They got him in protective custody." He answered now that he had more information himself, "Not a lot of contact with the rest of the prison population. Probably his safest bet for now."

"That's good." Bird answered before her nose wrinkled and she shook her head, "Or, I mean… better then general population at least-"

"I knew what you meant." Bullock interrupted, "This whole thing is a nightmare."

When Bird continued to stare at him with a nearly unblinking, expectant expression, Bullock finally asked, "What?"

Realizing he wasn't going to invite her along to visit Jim, Bird said, "I'd like to come with you… to see him."

When she saw the look on his face, she knew she was going to tell her no.

"He's my friend too." She was quick to defend.

"Sure." His eyebrows raised, "You kiss all your friends?"

Bird's face immediately contorted and she was left scrambling for her words, "I… How? He told you? Because we both agreed to not talk about that. It was a mistake-"  
She started to ramble off all the excuses she and Jim had come up with to write off what had happened.

"You told me." Bullock reminded her, "Last night, in all your rambling and boo-hooing about this and that."

"Look. I don't care about that. Each to their own. Whatever." He said holding up a hand to make sure she heard him out, "But I am worried about him."

"You were a mess when you showed up here last night and I've got no room to judge. God knows you've seen and been through enough that you got every right to be. But another mess is not what Jim needs right now, okay?" Bullock said in a surprisingly soft tone for as harsh as his words were.

When Bird shot him a look, he nodded, "You can give me the stink eye all you want, but you know I'm right. Barnes and the rest of the police force are siding with the evidence. It's over with Lee and my money is on her skipping town now anyways. The DA's office is as useless as ever. Which leaves me and you left on his side."

Swallowing down her anger, Bird bit down on the inside of her cheek to keep from snapping at him as she really gave his words a once over in her mind.

"We're really all he's got now, huh?" She managed a whisper and looked up to see him nodding, "Okay… so what are we supposed to do then?"

"Fight for him. Find out who's framing him and a way to get Jim outa Blackgate." He said what they both already knew. With a heavy sigh he continued, "But until then, we make sure he knows he's not alone, that he's not been forgotten. We keep money in his commissary and do everything we can to make his time in there bearable until we figure something else out."

"That is if you're up to it." Bullock added, "It's kind of an all in or all out sorta deal. If you're not up to this then you're better off to just stay out of the way."

Bird nodded in understanding.  
And even though a part of her was still up for wallowing in her own guilt and self-pity, she knew she had to pull it together.

She'd never said it out loud to him, but she was sure that a huge part of the reason she'd survived her stay in Arkham was how often Jim would come and visit her.  
Being locked away from society doesn't leave much to look forward too; so vists from friends and loved ones made it easier to get up and keep going from one day to the next.

Though she didn't feel like she deserved all the judgment and ultimatums she was being given from Bullock, she also understood where he was coming from.

If she wasn't able to keep herself stitched together enough to be there for Jim, then he'd be better off to have her out of sight and out of mind.

With the longer she'd been in Arkham, the less people came to see her.  
First she'd had a falling out with her brother and he'd stopped coming.  
Then visits from Harvey Dent slowed until they finally stopped and he'd even stopped taking her calls.

In the end, it was harder to deal with that then it would have been for them to have never showed up in the first place.

For all of their disagreements and conflicting moral standings, Jim had been the only one who'd made regular trips to Arkham and had even been there once she was released.

Now it was time for her to return the kindness.

Checking the time on his watch, Bullock stood up and grabbed his coat off the back of the chair.

He started for the door and called over his shoulder, "You in or out?"

Bird stood and turned around to see him opening the front door and looking back to see what she'd decide. When she seemed hesitant to move, he said, "But if you're still here when I get back, I'm gonna expect dinner on the table or something."

"Ha-ha" She commented with a slight eye roll, before she leaned down and picked up her purse to start for the door as she stated, "I'm in."

•••

Bird leaned against the side of the picnic table as she looked up to the chain link fencing over the top of the outdoor sitting area.

"Nice digs, huh?" Bullock commented when he saw her eyeing the armed guards on the roof.

Letting out a heavy sigh, Bird squinted as she pushed the dark sunglasses off her eyes and up to the top of her head.

Just as she reached up to rub her tired eyes, there was a loud buzzer sound in the air and they both looked up to see Jim stepping outside.

"Looking good, brother!" Bullock bolstered with a big smile as he attempted to lighten the mood, "Not everyone can pull the uniform off."

With a lame attempt a chuckle, Jim rubbed a hand over the top of his head and greeted, "Hey."

"Hey, Jim." Bird struggled to force her lips up into a smile for his sake.

"What are you both doing here?" He asked as he walked over to sit down at the table they were around.

This was his first full day in prison and as if that didn't feel strange enough, now he was met with a visit from both of them at the same time.  
That was a strange enough sigh within itself.

"Checking up on you." Bullock admitted as he sat down next to where Bird was leaning and motioned for Jim to have a seat across from him.

"You don't need to." Jim tried to assure them.  
It was hard enough trying to adjust to life in a cage, the last thing he needed was the looks of sympathy from anyone.

He'd given a lot of thought to how his life would change if he was found guilty at trial and just like he'd ended his relationship with Lee, he was thinking life on the inside might be easier to face without reminders of everything he was leaving behind.

"Yes, we do." Bird flatly stated, "You're our friend, Jim."

Jim glanced over at her and then back to where Bullock was sitting. He'd never once heard her group herself in with Bullock before. Nor had he seen them together for more than five minutes without his partner calling her crazy eyes or finding some way to offend and get a rise out of her.

"And we're gonna get you of here." Bullock repeated his promise from the night before, "I'm gonna keep working the case and find out who's behind framing you. And crazy eyes-" Jutting a thumb in Bird's direction he continued, "Is gonna talk to Dent. See if she can get him to have the investigation reopened."

"And!" Bird loudly cleared her throat and sighed at how much he'd downplayed her plans, "I have my lawyer looking into this, okay? She's going to see what we can do to get the ball rolling with an appeal."

"I highly doubt I can afford whatever lawyer-" Jim started to shoot the opportunity down, but Bird didn't let him as she said, "She's doing this pro bono. Let's just say that she owes me far more than this one favor."

Bullock looked between Jim and Bird.

"You stay strong." Bullock said as he stood up with a groan.  
His back was still bothering him from spending the night in a chair not even fit to be sat in for a few hours at a time.

Crossing around the table, he slapped a hand on Jim's shoulder and offered some advice, "And keep your head down. Stay outa trouble."

"Yeah. I'll try." Jim called after him as Bullock headed for the door.  
He was off to make sure Jim's commissary account was going to have him set for at least a couple weeks.  
Along with giving them a minute alone.

Bird looked towards the door and asked, "You're not gonna ditch me, right?"

"We'll see." He answered before disappearing inside the building.

"You rode here together?" Jim asked, unable to hide the surprise on his face.

"It's a long story." Bird dismissed, "It's just been a long night and morning and… whatever the hell time of day it is now."

Jim's eyebrows furrowed as he got a better look at her in the sunlight.

Her eyes were bloodshot and puffy and her skin was blotchy with the freckles spanning her nose much more noticeable than usual.

Looking from her unwashed hair down to the her wrinkled clothes, he tried to remember if that was the same clothes she'd been wearing the day before because they certainly looked like they'd been slept in.

"Are you okay?" He questioned, his voice lowering some.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" She weakly tried to joke.

"Bird?" He sighed.

"Jim." She replied in a tone matching the level of defeat and exhaustion in his.

Minutes passed in silence as he watched her and she refused to look him in the eyes.  
In fact she seemed far more interested in looking at the cracks in the cement ground than she did in him.

"You don't have to do this." He broke the silence first, "You don't need to come and check on me."

"I do." She turned to face him.

"No, you-" He started to protest.

"People aren't meant to be caged, Jim." Bird interrupted, "And I know right now you probably think you're handling this all fine, but in a week or a month, at some point after spending your days locked alone in a cell and eating the same slop for every single meal… you're going to start feeling like there's nothing to look forward too."

Jim's gaze fell to the table and Bird pulled in a deep breath, before she stated, "But you'll have this. You'll have me."

"And Bullock." She quickly tossed in.

This time when he looked at her, she diverted her gaze down to the metal table and provided more of an explanation, "You were the only one who kept coming to see me in Arkham and I know I never told you, but that was the only break I got from that place. A thirty minute window to forget exactly where I was and that counted for so much."

"It, uh…" She breathed, clearing her throat when her voice started to crack, "It sort of meant everything."

With a slow nod and thinking he had her motives figured out he leaned his head down some trying to catch her line of sight, "You're welcome, but that doesn't mean you owe me."

"I'm not here because I feel like I owe you." Her voice came out harsher than either of them were expecting.

Pinning her eyes shut she took a moment to breath and then held her hand up as she said, "I have my own motives."

With a weak and unsteady smile, she locked eyes with him and admitted, "Sometimes I need something to look forward to too. I'm not always the best at finding a reason to get out of bed in the morning, but this-" She motioned to him, "This is something we can both look forward too -something, someone to depend on and honestly, that's something I need too."

Leaning forward some over the table and seeming more concerned with her situation than he was his own, he asked, "What's going on?"

"Nothing." She ran her tongue over her lips and could have sworn they still tasted of alcohol, "I guess coming back from the dead just isn't all it's cracked up to be."

Once she caught the clouds of worry in his blue eyes, she shook her head and started to stand up, "I should probably find Bullock before he really does leave me stranded-"

"Bird." He complained, knowing there was far more bothering her than what she was letting on.

When she ignored him and continued to walk away, he got up and followed her, taking hold of her arm to bring her to a stop, "Bird-"

"No touching!"

They both looked up to where one of the armed guards stationed above was at a stand still and watching them like a hawk about to swoop down and carry away it's prey.

Letting go of her, Jim held his hands up and nodded, waiting until the guard went back to pacing before he tried to talk to Bird again.

"Whatever's going on, you can-"

"Times up, Gordon."

His head dropped forward with a heavy sigh.  
He was already starting to understand what Bird was saying earlier.

This was a rather short, off the books visit, but even in that time he'd started to forget where he was.

That was until the prison staff started barking orders at him; leaving him feeling like he was in chains even though they'd been taken off the night before.

"I'll be back Friday." Bird promised.  
Friday was the next regularly scheduled day for visitors and she was planning on being there when visiting hours would begin.

Jim couldn't do much other than give a single nod and turn to where the guard was growing more impatient by the second.

"You know what…" Bird finally exclaimed, dropping her arms to her sides and turning back to look at him, "What you did wasn't okay."

Jim spun back around and met her frustrated expression with a look of confusion on his own face.

"I said times up-" The guard barked, but Bird silenced him with a look that could have burnt him down to ash as she held up a finger to signal she needed another minute.

"I get why you did, what you did, but that doesn't make it right." She finally let out what she'd been holding in.

"What are you talking about?" Jim asked, glancing around them.  
He'd been in Blackgate since the night before; he didn't have the first clue what he could have done in that time to anger her.

"Lee." Bird's eyebrows raised, "You shouldn't have made my a part of what happened last night. It wasn't right. It wasn't fair."

"No, it wasn't." He agreed in a quite voice with a knowing expression taking over his features.

Bird bit down on her bottom lip and nodded before looking at him one more time, then going over to the door visitors and staff were taken though.

••• **later that week •••**

Slowing down as she neared the end of a long driveway, Bird picked up the notebook out of the passenger seat and looked down to the address she'd been given by Oswald.

It was just the day before that he'd called her, once again expressing his wishes that she'd come and visit him, finally meet his father and his wife, Grace.

Only once she'd agreed to come for dinner on Friday evening, the invitation had quickly turned into an offer to stay the weekend.

She wasn't too keen on the idea of taking off to stay in a house with people she'd never met before, but when she heard the hopefulness and excited tone in his voice -she didn't have it in her to turn him down.

So she'd set off in search of the Van Dahl residence directly after leaving from the visiting hours at Blackgate.

After matching the numbers on paper to the numbers on the mailbox, Bird pulled in a deep breath and turned onto tree lined drive.

Her eyebrows lowered and she leaned her head down forward to get a better look at the place through the windshield of the car.

Bird hadn't been sure what she was expecting -but the sight she was met with wasn't it.

Oswald had clearly said house and not mansion.  
Though that's what she was staring at, a beautiful old mansion, it's brick covered in lush green ivy.

Slowing down even further, she pulled up beside a sleek black car and eyed it for a moment before finally shutting her car off.

Taking her phone out of her purse, she sent a quick text to Alfred letting him know she'd made it safely to her destination, he'd insisted before she left that she call when she got there.  
He couldn't seem to understand why on earth she was insisting on running off to spend the weekend with Oswald and his new found family.

Stepping out of her car with her purse slung over her shoulder and the overnight bag she'd packed in hand, Bird reached the front door and pushed the doorbell.

It felt like only a few seconds later that the door was opened by a young woman, who's eyes were as dark as her hair, which was elegantly pinned back.

"You must be Bird." She greeted with a tight smile on her lips, as she took a moment to survey the young woman standing in front of her, "Oswald hasn't stopped talking about you."

"Hmm." Bird hummed, straining through a smile of her own.

"I'm Sasha." She introduced herself, before standing to the side and motioning for Bird to enter the house as she further explained, "Grace's daughter."

"Oh, so you're Oswald's stepsister?" Bird realized once she was through the door and turned back to face her.

"I suppose I am." Her voice came out in a huff, not near as friendly as she sounded mere seconds before.  
It was clear to see that she wasn't fond of being reminded her of her familial bond with him.

When she caught sight of the disapproving expression on Bird's face, she quickly tried to recover, "Still adjusting to it, is all. None of us knew he even existed until a short time ago."

Silently Bird nodded, not buying the overly friendly act for a second.  
But she held her tongue.

She was a guest in someone else's house after all and even though she didn't really want to be there, she knew just how much this meant to her best friend.

So, she'd smile back and play along as best she could during her time there.

"Where's Oswald?" She questioned.

"He's-" Sasha started to say that he should be along any moment now, but she didn't get the chance when Oswald scrambled into the entry way.

"Bird! Bird!" He jubilantly called out, smiling as wide as his cheeks would allow.

His pace didn't slow one bit as he hobbled to her and wrapped her in a hug with such force it nearly knocked her down.

"Hey." She greeted back with a chuckle as she dropped her bag to the floor so she could return the embrace, "How are you?"

"I'm wonderful." Oswald answered, finally letting go so he could take a step back, "I'm so happy you made it."

Though Bird was nearly always a woman of her word, he could easily tell through their conversations that she wasn't eager to be coming there.  
So he'd been worried all day that she might cancel, but now he could let out a sigh of relief.

Bird was still there for him, just as she'd always been.  
His best friend. The most important person to him.

Sasha eyed the friends for a moment.  
She'd never seen a smile that big on Oswald's face and he'd hardly stopped smiling since Elijah had brought him to the house.

Her new stepbrother was always a little on edge, jittery with nervous ticks and never seemed to care much for being touched.  
Or so she thought until she saw him with Bird.

"Here." She interrupted the moment between them, "I'll take your bags to the room you'll be in."

"Thanks." Bird nodded as Sasha picked the bag up off the floor and Bird handed her purse over.

Once she was out of sight up the stairs, Bird looked to Oswald and eyed his new clothes and the new way in which he was combing his hair.

"You look good, Oswald." She complimented, observing that he truly did seem much happier than the last time she'd seen him.

"And you're a vision, as always, Bird." He immediately replied.

"You look happy." She reiterated, "Really happy."

"I am." He agreed.

Bird smiled, this time much more sincere that when she'd been interacting with Sasha.

She'd been skeptical when he'd first told her about Elijah, but maybe this really was a good thing.  
Especially after the pain of losing his mother.

"You've made it just in time for dinner." Oswald told her as he grabbed onto her hand and started to lead her through the house.

"So…" Bird breathed as she looked around at the elegant decorations. The inside of the mansion was every bit as beautiful as he outside, "How long are you planning on staying here?"

Slowing to a stop, Oswald looked over to his friend and answered in a manner of voice as if she should have already known the answer, "I'm home, Bird."

"You're going to live here?" She questioned, "Permanently?"

With a smile, he reassuringly squeezed her hand before continuing their journey to the dining room.

"Ah." Elijah smiled as he looked up to see his son and the pretty young woman at his side as they entered the room, "Bird, I'm so glad you could make it. Oswald has spoken a great deal about you. I'm Elijah. Elijah Van Dahl."

Bird could immediately see the resemblance between Oswald and his father as the older man stood from his seat at the head of the table.

"Thank you." Bird smiled, as she reached out to shake his hand, "It's nice to finally meet you."

"The pleasure is all mine." He assured her as he raised her hand and gently placed a kiss to the back of it, a true gentleman.

Bird's smile grew. In the time she'd known Oswald's mother, Gertrud, she knew that was how the woman had expected to be greeted by men.  
This was exactly the type of man she could imagine his mother would have fallen for.

"I don't want you to feel the least bit out of place here." Elijah said, "Please feel free to explore the house and come and go as you please. You mean such a great deal to my son… which makes you family. I look forward to getting to know you better."

"And I, you." Bird agreed.

She looked over to Oswald and then back to Elijah, she wasn't sure if it was solely based off of how much he reminded her of her friend or more, but Bird already liked Elijah.

In just the few minutes she'd spent interacting with him, she felt much more at ease about Oswald's sudden move to live with him.

"I hope you've brought your appetite." And older, but well dressed and made-up woman said as she appeared in the doorway, "Elijah has instructed the chef to create quite the feast."

"Bird." Elijah said as he placed a hand on her upper back and motioned to the woman as he warmly smiled, "This is my wife, Grace."

"It's nice to meet you." Bird kept the polite smile on her face even though the temperature of the room seemed to drop when the woman made her presence known.

"Please." Grace beamed a smile as she motioned to the table, "Have a seat."

With a nod, Bird looked to Oswald wondering which seat she should take at the grand table.  
Understanding, he quickly moved to scoot one of the chairs out for her, the one next to where he'd be sitting.

The group of four had just gotten sat down when a young man entered the room wearing a custom tailored black suit and bow-tie. His dark golden brown hair was combed back and over to one side.

"Charles, there you are." Grace greeted her son, "Where's your sister?"

"Washing up for dinner." He answered just before his eyes cut over to where Bird was sitting.

When she started to scoot her chair back to stand up, he held up a hand and with a smile on his lips that appeared more of a smirk, he said, "Don't get up on my account."

He took his seat at the table across from where Bird was sitting and complimented, "You're much prettier than I expected."

"Charles!" Grace scolded as Elijah lowered his head and let out a small chuckle.

"What, mom?" He questioned, flashing a smile back in Bird's direction and stressing, "It's a compliment."

Bird looked over to Oswald, who seemed unsure of what to do or say.

Her friend had spoken the most in their phone conversations about his father and some mentions here and there of Grace, but she couldn't recall his mentioning either of his step-siblings.

"Sorry." Sasha apologized for being late as she entered the room, pausing for moment when she saw her brother had taken her usual seat.  
Without drawing attention to it, she sat down next to him and eyed Bird before greeting everyone else at the table as the kitchen staff began to enter the room and set up the dinner spread.

Bird mostly remained quiet as she listened to everyone else talk, she was trying to get a read on Grace and her two children.  
So far, she was more fond of Elijah than the rest of them.

When Charles broke out into an entertaining story about an encounter he had with a ghost, everyone had broken out into laughter.

Taking a drink from her glass of table wine, Bird eyed him as he insisted, "It's true, I swear it!"

"Clear as day." Charles continued, "A ghost. She was this pale old woman in this long black dress. She was this close." He said motioning to the distance between himself and Bird.

"What did you do?" Oswald laughed as he wiped his mouth on the cloth napkin.

"Well, I ran away screaming, of course!" His voice boomed through the room as he laughed.

"Do either of you believe in ghosts?" Grace questioned looking to where Bird and Oswald were seated.

"Yes." They both answered in unison, before glancing at each other.

"I do." Oswald furthered, "I've seen them."

"This house has several." Elijah confirmed, "But don't worry, they're all quite friendly."

"Don't listen to him, Bird." Grace laughed softly, "There are no ghosts here."

"Oh there are ghosts, alright. This house was built by grandfather. He died here. His wife and two sisters also passed away upstairs." Elijah explained as the laughter died down to silence, "And my poor dear parents. Yes, many ghosts."

"Don't let that spook you." Grace followed.

"It doesn't." Bird answered, taking a sip from her glass of ice water and explaining, "I grew up in an old family home with ghosts of its own."

"Oh?" Grace's eyebrows raised, "And that didn't scare you? Even as a child?"

"As a child, yes." Bird smiled, "Terrifying, but you see -as I got older I learned that it was the living that were dangerous, not the dead."

Caught a little off guard by comment, Oswald adjusted in his seat and tried to bring the conversation back to a happier topic, "Bird's family home is quite the display. A mansion, more expansive than this one."

"Really?" Sasha asked; as she, her brother and her mother all focused their dark eyes on where Bird was sitting.

"I didn't realize." Grace admitted, her eyes narrowing inquisitively as their newest house guest, "What kind of work does your family do?"

"A little bit of everything." She answered, pausing for a bite of her soup, "It's a large company that own subsidiaries in everything from technology and biotech to food and steel mills."

"Oh my…" Grace breathed into her glass of wine.

"I'll admit, I've never really had much to do with the inner workings of the company." Bird dismissed, not caring much for being the center of attention.

She was about to ask Elijah and Grace how they met, but before she got the chance Charles pushed, "What company?"

"Wayne Enterprises." Bird answered in a flat tone.  
Funny how they seemed interested once they found out she came from money.

Grace nearly choked on her the wine, coming up away from the glass sputtering and reaching for her napkin, "I… I had no idea."

"My great-grandfather, Manfred, open a tailor's shop in Gotham, many years ago. He made suits for city's elite." Elijah beamed, "I was still just a boy when, I believe it must have been your grandfather, would come into my family's shop. The Wayne name was a very important name in in the city, I'd imagine still is."

Bird smiled at him, thinking that for as large and expansive as the world was, it always feel so strange to realize just how small it can be.

She and Oswald crossed paths at random and now here she was learning that her family had ties to his.

"Oswald." Grace cut in, "Why didn't you tell us?"

When he grew confused at her question, her teeth clenched in a strained smile, "That your friend here is a Wayne. You've only every referred to her as Bird."

"I'm sorry-" Oswald stuttered.  
The last thing he wanted to do was upset his new family.

"Don't apologize." Bird interrupted, before looking back to Grace and stating, "He probably never said anything because it didn't cross his mind that he should -because it never mattered to him where I came from or what name I bear."

Biting down on the side of her tongue, Grace nodded and looked down to her plate of food.

"So." Bird began after downing the last of the wine left in her glass, "How did you two meet?"

"Oh, that's a boring story…" Grace tried get out telling it as she followed suit and finished off her wine as well.

"No, let me tell it, dear." Elijah insisted, "Oswald has yet to hear it too."

Bird glanced across the table to where Sasha and Charles had stopped eating and seemed just as displeased with the conversation topic as their mother was.

After a drink from his glass of water, Elijah began,"After my mother died, I sat alone in this house for months. Barely got out of bed, in fact. Finally, I found a diner, not too far from here. I'd go there every day at the same time, order the same thing. Chicken soup and a seltzer."

Smiling over to his wife, he continued, "Grace was my waitress, and I grew very fond of her. She told me of her two poor children, Sasha and Charles, and how they suffered at the hands of their abusive father. I had to help. I offered her refuge, and she accepted. And this house heard laughter once again. Then one thing led to another. Love blossomed." After another sip of water he beamed, "And here we are."

"But you are my only true blood relative, Oswald." Elijah smiled proudly over to his son.

The silence of the room was broken by the sound of glass shattering and Sasha gasped as she looked down to where she'd broken her nearly empty wine glass.

"Oh, my poor dear, are you hurt?" Elijah questioned, genuine concern in his voice.

"Oh, no." She nervously laughed, as she looked down to small cuts and blood on her hand, "I'm fine."

Seeing that Sasha's napkin was covered in shards of glass and and droplets of red wine, Bird picked up her own clean napkin from the table and offered it to her.

With an appreciative nod, Sasha accepted the napkin and wrapped up her hand.

"Hmm." Grace hummed against her glass, "Clumsy girl."

"To family." Elijah proposed a toast as he held his glass up.

"To family." Grace and Charles immediately echoed as their glasses raised to the center of the table.

Sasha smiled and picked up her glass of water for the toast as Oswald laughed and seemed overjoyed, "To family!"

"Yes." Bird's lips twisted up into a smile, now entirely certain that she didn't much care for Grace or her children, "To family." She joined in on the toast with her glass of water.

•••

"How'd it go today go?" Bird quietly spoke into her phone as she softly padded the stairs in her socked feet.

Crossing through the nearly dark house, she listened as Bullock told her that so far he wasn't having any luck trying to uncover who'd framed Jim.

"I just don't get it." He huffed into the phone as he leaned down to pull a bottle of beer from his open refrigerator door, "If I didn't know he was innocent, I'd buy into all the evidence too."

"Okay." Bird sighed, rubbing her forehead as she located a small sitting room, plenty warm from the fire in the mantle. Sitting down on a dark burgundy love-seat, she continued, "But we know he didn't do it. So there has to be something somewhere that proves it."

"From your mouth to God's ears." Bullock commented as he dropped into a seat on his couch and kicked his tired legs up on the coffee table, "Hey, how was he today?"

"As good as can be expected, I guess." Bird replied, "When's the next visiting day? Tuesday?"

"Yeah, but I'm gonna talk to my guy, see if I can't pop in Monday to check on him." He answered, before asking, "You gonna make it Tuesday?"

"Yeah, I should be back in town by then, so I'll be there."

"Where'd you say you were goin' anyways?"

"Visiting family out of town." She vaugly replied.

"Uh-huh." He nodded taking a drink of his beer, "We talking Wayne family or crime family?"

"Goodnight, Bullock." Bird refused to give him anymore details of where she was.

"Catch you later, crazy eyes."

With a small sigh Bird, closed flipped her phone shut and immediately tensed when she heard footsteps.

"Oh!" Elijah exclaimed, seeming surprised when he walked into the room to find Bird sitting by the fire staring at him, "I'm sorry. I didn't think anyone else was awake."

"I came for a snack." He laughed looking down to the small plate of cheese and crackers in his hands before questioning, "Mind if I join you?"

"It's your house." Bird smiled motioning to the seat across from where she was sitting.

"Couldn't sleep?" He questioned, "I do hope your room is alright?"

Looking to where he was sitting across from her, Bird said, "The room is lovely, thank you. No, I'm a hopeless night owl." Dropping her shoulders into a shrug she explained, "I worked in a nightclub for years and got a little too used to going to bed when the rest of the world was just waking up."

Erin kept insisting that if she wanted to get this adulting thing down then she'd need to start keeping the hours for it, but so far she hadn't had much luck.

"That sounds exciting." He replied, clearly surprised by the newly learned tidbit of information.

With a nod, she answered, "Feels like a different life now though."

"Still." He insisted, "I'd imagine it gives you lots of stories to tell."

"True, though most of them aren't appropriate for the dinner table."

They both laughed and he cleared his throat, "I haven't had the most exciting life myself. No, after my father succumbed to illness, my mother kept me close. Homeschooled and didn't want me venturing off into the city."

"He was sick?" Bird picked up on and frowned, "I'm sorry, that must have been hard to watch."

"Not physically ill." Elijah explained with a deep look of sadness filling his eyes, "He was plagued by impulses."

When Bird's eyebrows lowered, he continued, "Evil thoughts of violence. My mother told me later in life that many in his family had the same affliction."

Scooting forward in her seat, Bird's voice lowered as she said, "Mr. Van Dahl-"

"Oh, Elijah, please." He insisted.

Nodding, Bird questioned, "Do you know much of Oswald's life before you met him?"

"Some." He answered, taking a bite of cracker.

"The, uh, the way he is now…" Her face twisted up, unsure of how to get the right words out, "He's not always been so…"

Holding up a hand, Elijah tried to help her get what she was trying say out, "I never understood my father's torments, but I've suspected that my son might."  
With his eyes focused on her he guessed, "Am I correct in that assumption?"

Slowly, with a nearly mournful look on her face, Bird's only answer was a silent nod.

Elijah looked down with a knowing expression on his face.

"I don't want you to think any less of him." Bird finally broke the silence, "It's just that, he's suffered enough in his life and he's happy here. Happy with you and I don't want anything to come out later and jeopardize that."

"He is my son." Elijah declared, "He is and will always be loved. My life with him started the moment I met him. He's forgiven for all past transgressions."

"Thank you." Bird managed a smile, "When he told me he was going away to live with his father, I honestly wasn't sure what to think about it.

"You see, Gertrud told me once that Oswald is naive and to some who don't know him very well that might sound silly, but he's not always the best at properly reading situations -at reading people and with the way he is now, I've been so worried about him." Motioning to Elijah, she admitted with relief, "Now I see I've been worried for nothing."

With his head tilted towards the side, Elijah pointed out, "You seem troubled, dear."

"Ghosts." Bird answered with a sad attempt at a smile and mirrored his earlier words, "I've got my own share of past transgressions. Ghosts and demons. Sometimes I'm afraid it's not only being a night owl that keeps me up."

With a nod of understanding, Elijah said, "We're all sinners. We all have things to be ashamed of, wished we'd never done. I hope you can learn to be free from yours. To live in peace."

Rising to her feet, Bird thought to herself that even though she was now much more at peace than she'd felt in a long time, it still seemed to be an unattainable state of being.

"I should probably try and get some sleep before the sun comes up." Bird excused herself, giving him a warm smile she parted, "Goodnight."

"Goodnight, dear." He called after her before looking down to the last few crackers on his plate and settling back into his seat further.

•••

* * *

 **A/N - I hope you're all having a great holiday season!  
Thank you for reading and I also hope you all enjoyed the chapter.**

 **Thanks to: Love. Fiction. 2017, Shadow knight1121, Starlog246, PetrovaLover, Munyue, xxXWolfsLullabyxXxx, SmellYourScentForMiles, Amelia, chodofaggins, DancingDorisDay, HQS, Katniss789, Kakkorat is Cake, Jane and to the Guests who've reviewed the last chapter.**

 **It would be great if you'd take the time to leave a review and let me know what you thought and if you're still with me. :)**


	24. Touch

**XXIV**

 _"We must be willing to get rid of the life we planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us." - Joseph Campbell_

* * *

•••

Folding up the clothes she'd slept in the night before, Bird added them to her nearly full overnight bag.

Turning in a circle in the middle of the guest room she'd called hers for the weekend, she made sure she wasn't going to leave any of her belongings behind.

She blew out a sigh when she spotted the charging cable to her cellphone still plugged in next to the bed.

Quickly unplugging it, she dropped in on her pajamas in the bag and got to work zipping it shut.

Oswald had asked her to stay late in the day to join them for one last dinner before she headed back to Wayne Manor, but she had a feeling if she agreed to that -that it would turn into her staying the night again.

Which, in truth, she wouldn't have minded. Spending time with Oswald was always one of her favorite pastimes and she also felt a growing connection to Elijah.  
But it was her trust in the older man that left her feeling confident about her return to Gotham.

Grace and her adult children might not have been the friendliest people she'd ever met, but they were tolerating her friend and she was sure with Elijah in the picture that they'd continue to act as one big happy family.

"Oswald?" Bird called out as she stepped off the last stair and looked around.

No one answered her but it was only seconds later that she heard his laugh ring out from a room off the left.

"Bird!" He greeted as soon as his friend stepped into the room.  
Looking up from where he was sitting, Elijah warmly smiled, "Afternoon, dear."

"Afternoon." She greeted back smiling at them both.

"You must join us." Elijah invited motioning with a hand.

"For what?" Bird asked, as she glanced down to her phone to check the time.

"Board games." Oswald beamed a wide smile.

Halting all movement, Bird couldn't hide the shocked look on her face once she was able to repeat back, "Board games?"

"We're just setting up for a new one." He nodded as he scooted over on the couch and patted the cushion next to him.

"Board games." An erratic laugh slipped out, "Sure, why not."

As she took her seat next to her best friend, she watched as Elijah poured her glass of fresh lemonade from the pitcher set up on the small round table with snacks.

"Thank you." She nodded.

Surveying the stack of old cardboard boxes that looked to have been sitting untouched for quite some time due the dust buildup, Bird asked, "What are we playing?"

Never in her life did she imagine she'd be playing board games with Oswald and his father. Then again not many things in her life had happened the way she'd imagined.

"Hmm…" Elijah thoughtfully hummed as he eyed the board games Oswald had retrieved from an old bookcase earlier in the day. "Perhaps a game of cards instead?"

Bird was about to agree, when Grace's voice cut shrilly through the house, "Elijah!"

Before anyone could respond to her, she marched into the room with Sasha and Charles just mere steps behind, "There you are. Elijah, brace yourself. I'm afraid we have some very bad news."

"Oh dear…" He quietly commented, a look of worry immediately taking over his aged face.

In their time together, he hadn't seen his wife upset very often. Internally he tried to prepare for the countless worst case scenarios starting to take up residence in his mind.

"Charles was at the public library today-" She began to say, but Charles quickly cut her off as he chimed in, "Research for the novel I'm writing."

"Ah. Of course." Bird muttered under her breath.  
In the days she'd been there she hadn't see Grace nor her children contribute much to the household aside from showing up for meals and saying goodbye as they'd head out on shopping trips.

They seemed all to keen to rely on the staff at the house for cooking and cleaning and any other day-to-day chores.

The same probably could be said of her own family, only the Grace and her children showed little to no respect for anyone working under them.

Everything Bird had seen just continued to prove that she'd hit the nail on the head when she'd pegged Grace as someone who was solely with Elijah for his fortune.

Then again, maybe Oswald's presence had just disrupted the entire house on such a level that this wasn't the usual dynamic. She had no way of knowing for sure, but she wasn't fond of any of Oswald's step family.

"I was reading some old newspapers, and I made an alarming discovery." Charles continued while he had everyone's attention.

With a heavy breath and a look of horror on her face, Grace looked to her husband, "My dear…" She pulled in another breath, dragging the suspense out for much longer than necessary, "Oswald is not the nice young man he says he is. If we didn't lead such sheltered lives here, we would know what the whole world knows. He's a notorious criminal. We've been sheltering a killer."

Opening up a folded copy of the Gotham Gazette, Grace revealed the cover was a picture of Oswald with the bolded title 'Penguin Busted!'.

Bird looked over to where Oswald was sitting beside her, his eyes pinned shut and head lowered in shame.

"Wait just a minute-" Bird argued as she quickly rose to her feet.

In response the three of them gasped and backed away as if they were in immediate physical danger.

"Uh-uh." Grace was quick to silence her with a wave of her index finger, "Just when we thought it couldn't get worse… we found this!"

Unfolding the next paper she'd had in hand, Bird's jaw tensed as she stared at the headline 'Loony Bird?' With the subtitle reading 'Wayne girl found unfit to strand trial for triple homicide.'

The dark text was positioned right above a rather unflattering picture of Bird in her Arkham attire the day she'd been transferred there.

"Elijah!" Grace called out, "We've been housing two dangerous criminal under the same roof as we eat and sleep. This is-"

"While you were rooting through newspapers at the library, did you happen to find the issue of the Gazette where I was released from Arkham… because because I was framed? I never killed those people." Bird asserted.

"No." Sasha was quick to fire back, "We didn't see anything like that in the papers."

"Sort of convenient." Bird continued, "Oswald and I have both been talked about several times in the papers and yet the only issues you come armed with are the ones that paint us as blood thirsty killers?"

"We could have all been raped and murdered in our beds!" Grace nearly shrieked to stretch her voice volumes above the tone Bird was using.  
"Raped and murdered." Sasha repeated her mother's words.

Grace handed the newspaper over to Elijah, who questioned, "They call you The Penguin?"

Jumping to his feet, Oswald's entire body was trembling with tears in his eyes as he could already envision the new family he'd found beginning to hate and fear him for things he'd done in the past.

Grace backed up even further from where Oswald was now standing next to Bird.

"To be fair... ... I never raped anybody." Oswald's voice shook as he spoke. Trying to offer up any sort of defense and ease their fear.

"Yeah!" Bird confidently nodded, "He's never raped anyone."

Looking at the pair of friends as if they'd sprouted a dozen extra limbs, Grace sarcastically exclaimed, "Oh, well, that's a mercy, now, isn't it?"

"But he's killed people!" Sasha argued and Charles smirked at Bird when he added, "They both have."

"We all have our demons." Elijah cut in as he also stood to his feet and placed a hand on Oswald's shoulder, "We're all sinners."

When he saw the shocked look on his wife's face, Elijah continued, "My son told me about his past. He just didn't tell me how famous he was. You're too modest, son."

Bird and Oswald both looked over to where Elijah was wearing a proud smile as he looked back down to the paper in his hands.

"We should frame it." Bird commented with her lips curving up into a smile.

"There's an idea." Elijah chuckled along with her.

Oswald looked between his father and his best friend with a growing confused expression as if his ears were deceiving him.  
As if this were a dream where he could once again know an ounce of the unconditional love his mother would always show him.

This wasn't happening, Grace thought to herself.  
She'd just brought proof that they were housing a pair of homicidal lunatics and her husband wasn't the least bit rattled by the revelation.

"Elijah... a violent criminal in our house?" She gasped, hand over heart like she might faint from the shock.

"Grace, relax, he's changed. Redeemed." Turning to Oswald, he questioned, "You're not this man anymore, are you?"

"Oh, no, sir." He stammered to answer his father.

"But how... h-how do you know? How do you know he's not?" Grace demanded to know.

"I've looked into his soul. I've seen his beautiful heart." Elijah smiled.

"And what about her?" Charles asked, pointing to Bird.

"I've undergone quite the transformation, myself," Bird danced around giving a straight answer, "Some of us are still works in progress."

"Aren't we all?" Elijah smiled with a nod of approval before he looked back down to the newspaper and began to read the article written about his son, "The Dapper Gangland Kingpin. What a name."

With a laugh, he took the paper with him to the next room to read what the gazette had to say about his son, while Grace and her children scurried off to another room.

"Am I…am I dreaming?" Oswald questioned once he was left alone with Bird.

"Nope." She ran a hand through her hair, "That really just happened."

His mouth hung open as he stared down to the floor, unable to reconcile in his head how someone who'd done as many bad things as he had, could ever deserve to have two wonderful parents who'd love him despite of all the crimes he'd committed.

"Are you okay?" Bird asked, turning to face him.

With rapid blinks and a few sniffles he nodded, "He still loves me?"

"You are his son." Bird reminded, laying her hands on his upper arms and trying to get him to look at her. "And as much as I'm going to miss seeing your face every day… I think this is exactly where you need to be."

"I'm home." He nodded as a single tear left a trail down one of his cheeks.  
"I'm home." He repeated the sentiment as if he was finally able to breath after years with no air.

His excitement lessened with a jolt of pain in his chest at her words.  
You -you could stay…" He offered, "I'd have to check with my father first, but he already seems to adore-"

"I can't stay." Bird interrupted. Her brows furrowed, "I have to get back to the city. I have a lot to do. Starting with getting my own place and setting a meeting with the board of my family's company."

"But-" He began to argue.

"And you're going to be fine." She assured him, "You have an amazing father and you don't need me right now."

"I'll always need you, Bird." He promised. His words brought a soft smile to her face as she nodded and replied, "And I, you. But right now someone needs me more and-"

"Jim Gordon?" He easily guessed.

When she cocked her head to the side with a curious expression, he strained a smile as he explained, "Something has been on your mind. I just assumed…" Clearing his throat, he shook his head, "If you must return to Gotham, then I understand. But I hope you'll stop by for the occasional visit?"

"I will." She promised.

The smile fell from his lips when he saw the expression change on her face.

"Bird?" He stepped closer, as if he weren't already standing closer than the average person would, "What is it?"

"I need you to promise me that you'll be careful." Her tone was serious with a stern expression on her face to match, "Watch out for yourself, okay?"

The smile returned as he chuckled, "I'm with family, Bird. I hardly think I'm in any danger-"

"Your dad is a great man." Bird whole-heatedly expressed, "But watch out for Grace and the others, okay?"

"Okay." He agreed, if for no other reason than to ease her nerves.

It was a little while later that Bird found Elijah in the front sitting room next to the warm fire place, still looking through the outdated issues of the Gotham Gazette.

"I just wanted to let you know that I'm heading home." She called out with a light knock of her knuckles against the wood framed doorway.

"So soon?" Elijah questioned as he folded up the paper and laid it to the side.

"It's been days." Bird reminded him as she watched him get to his feet.

"Only a couple of them." He smiled, before holding a hand up and in understanding said, "I do hope you'll come back to see us again soon."

"That's the plan." She nodded.

Oswald had told her that his father had some health problems, mostly heart related. He'd been told by doctors that he had a hole in his heart that only kept getting bigger in time.

Her own parents had been in good health up until their deaths.  
She couldn't imagine what it would be like to watch someone you love get sicker and sicker until they were gone.

Silently, she hoped that Oswald would get to spend a great many years making up for lost time and maybe there would be an operation or procedure that could fix Elijah.

Oswald had suffered enough in his life and Bird could only hope that he wouldn't have to deal with losing his father so soon after his mother's death.

"Good." Elijah smiled as he stepped closer, "Do you need help with your bags? I'll see if Charles-"

"I've only got the one." She nodded down to where she'd sat her bag on the floor, "I tend to pack light. I just wanted to thank you for letting me stay this weekend."

"You're welcome. I'm so glad you could make it and I want you to know that you're always welcome here." He extended an open invitation for her come around whenever she pleased.

Bird smiled and nodded her head, turning around to leave she started to reach for her bag before she stopped and stood in silence for.

"Bird?" Elijah questioned, concern in his tone.

"Thank you." She repeated.

"Oh." He laughed, "Really, it's no trouble. This old house gets lonely…"

"Not just for letting me stay." She finally turned back around to face him, "For being so great to Oswald."

"You see…" Bird cleared her throat, "You've been so kind to him and that isn't something he's been shown much of in his life."

With a smile just as warm as the fire that set the room aglow, Elijah stepped forward and placed a hand on her arm as he said, "I wish I'd known about him much sooner, but it eases this old man's mind to know that my son has someone like you in his life, Bird. The friendship… the bond you both share, it's beautiful."

"For a long time we were pretty much all each other had." She started say, letting out a heavy breath of air she realized, "That feels like it's been ages ago now. So much has changed, we've both changed, but somehow…"

She gave a shrug and Elijah nodded, "True friendships can withstand the winds of change and the sands of time."

"Take care of him." Bird softly said as she stepped forward and hugged him, "And take care of yourself."

She might have only known him for a few days, but it felt like much longer. There was a rare comfort in his presence that she'd only felt with a few other people in her life.

••• **weeks later •••**

Bird opened her purse and reached in for her phone to see if there was any news from Oswald on his father's condition.

It a few days earlier that he'd called her in a panic because Elijah had collapsed and after the doctor had been called, they'd found out his condition was worsening; an infection had taken hold.

According to Oswald, the doctor had insisted it was time to make sure all of his affairs were in order.

After seeing she hadn't missed anything, Bird flipped her phone shut and dropped it back into her purse before she slid down in the car seat some and rested her head against the smooth leather seating.

With a blank expression on her face, she watched the city buildings blur by as her driver sped up to switch lanes on their way to Blackgate.

It had only been a few weeks since she'd spent the weekend with Oswald and new found family, but it very much felt as if she had been there only the day before.

She'd kept herself busy nearly every waking minute of the day, tried her best to not let her mind start to wander.

Whenever she'd start to think of everything that was weighing on her, it got harder and harder to breathe.

Helpless wasn't a feeling she handled well; but that's exactly what she'd been feeling.

Bruce was still staying with Selina on the streets and the longer he was gone the more she started to worry that when he'd come home, he wouldn't be the same person he was when he'd left.  
If he even came home at all.

Gotham had a way of getting inside of people, latching on with thorny roots and twisting them all up until something unrecognizable took their place.

Even though she tried to talk to Oswald on the phone every couple of days, she was still having trouble accepting that this is who her friend was going to be from now on.  
And even though she trusted Elijah, the same couldn't be said for Grace.  
So she was still living with the concern that he might not be as safe as he, himself, believed his situation to be.

Then there was Jim.  
Who was still starting out his forty year sentence and had already been in a handful of fights.

Bullock, who'd been so convinced he could crack the case and find out who framed his partner had been starting to spend less nights with the evidence and more time at a local bar.

Knowing Jim's life was in a constant state of imminent danger had been wearing on them both.

Whenever she'd let her mind or hands idle for too long all the worries started to creep in and once they took root and spread it was nearly impossible to get the noise in her head to quiet.

So, the solution had been to stay as busy as she could.

She'd been at Blackgate for every single visitation to see Jim and had spent more than a handful of nights looking over the case with Bullock.  
Not that either of them were having much luck figuring out who could have done such a perfect job framing him -or even why someone would go to that much trouble.

Erin had helped her revise the proposal to the board for the shelters that Bird had found when she was cleaning out her parents bedroom weeks ago.  
In fact, that was where she'd spent her morning; finally bringing the proposal to the board.

Aside from that she'd found her own place. A fully furnished four bedroom townhouse that was perfect in nearly every single way, even it's location in one of the historic parts of town.  
She'd always loved the old buildings around there and once she saw the inside of the townhouse she was sold.

Aside from that she'd been spending the rest of her free time going between her new house and back to Wayne Manor.

She was shaken from her thoughts when the car slowed to a stop.

Pulling her sunglasses off, she dropped them on the seat next to her and then got to work on removing her jewelry.  
She knew very well what she was and wasn't allowed to wear for prison visits now.

"That's some ride." Bullock let out a low whistle as he eyed the car while Bird's driver opened the door and she stepped out of the back.

"I just came from a meeting at Wayne Enterprises." She explained, adjusting the hem of her dress, "Sorry I'm late. How is he?"

"Don't know." Bullock nodded for her to follow him as they headed for the visitors entrance of Blackgate, "I haven't gone in yet."

"Why not?" Bird complained, wondering how long he'd been waiting outside of the prison, "Visiting hours are almost over and-"

"You know why." He asserted, turning to face her just outside of the door, before adding, "Hours don't matter. My guy is working today."

Bird nodded. She knew exactly why Bullock wasn't wanting to see Jim by himself, the last couple times he'd asked about Lee and they'd heard news recently that neither of them wanted to be the one to have to relay.

She was at least glad that Bullock's friend was working, that meant they'd be able to go to the small outdoor area instead of the main visitors room inside.

Might not have sounded like much of a treat, but the privacy was nice and it was an added bonus that she wouldn't be subjected to jeers and the occasional lewd comment from other male inmates.

Plus, it meant more time for Jim to get some fresh air considering they were only allowed a small amount of time outside each day.

Bird eyed the guard stationed at the door and then as usual her eyes drifted up to where the two armed ones from above were pacing in their usual manner.

Drumming her fingers against the picnic table, Bird stared down to her manicured nails and then back over to the doors as she waited for either Jim or Bullock to join her.

As they were signing in and going through the metal detectors, Bullock's friend had pulled him to the side and with every passing minute she sat outside alone, the knot of nerves in her stomach grew.

It wasn't too long ago that the warden had moved Jim out of protective custody and into general population; which now left him exposed and vulnerable.

With every new visit to Blackgate, Bird swore Jim had more bruises on his face than the last time.

Now she was starting to worry something worse might have happened.

That was until there was a loud buzzer sound from the door the inmates would come out of and Bird looked up to see Jim.

She breathed a sigh of relief, even if it was a small one.

His lip was busted open and the bridge of his nose donned a very fresh cut and dark bruising.

"What happened this time?" Bird questioned as Jim sat down across the table from her.

Glancing up to the guards stationed above, Jim gave a small shrug, "Same old."

Bird's forehead lined at the despondent way in which he spoke.  
She could already see the change in him since being moved in the rest of the prison population.

It was an entire different world inside of those walls.  
One in which he hadn't seen much of when he was in protective custody, but now he was watching drug deals and other illegal trades happening on a daily basis while the guards sat back and the warden was lined his own pockets.

He knew he needed to keep his head down and not draw more attention to himself than he already had, but badge or not -he was a cop.  
It was in his blood and he didn't know how to be anything else.

Turning the cheek and not intervening was next to impossible for him.

Shaking his head and wanting to think about literally anything aside from his current state of living, Jim nodded to her clothes and complimented, "You look nice."

"Thanks." She blew out a breath as she said, "I had a meeting with Wayne Enterprises today. That's why I got here late."

"The one about opening up a new foundation?" Jim remembered from their last conversations both in person and on the phone, "And opening up shelters? How'd it go?"

"Good." She answered with a single clap of her hands, leaving them clasped, she seemed astonished by it herself, "It went really, really good actually. They're going to break ground on the shelters within the next few months, which just feels really fast, because now I've got fundraisers and charity auctions to host and I'm used to attending those events -not being the one in charge of them."

"Wow." Jim's eyebrows raised, "That's really great. Sounds like a lot of work, but it will be worth it. Those shelters -the whole program is really going to help a lot of people."

"I know and it's going to be good practice for next year." Bird's eyes widened.

"What's next year?" Jim questioned.

"Well…" She breathed, "The community outreach director is retiring at the end of the year and the board has offered me the position. I don't know if Bruce talked them into it or what happened exactly and I also don't know why I agreed to it…"

With a nervous laugh she reached up and rubbed her temples, "They were talking about the positive press coverage I've had recently and how it would be really nice to have a Wayne more involved with the day-to-day ins and outs of it all and I don't know, it just… it just felt like the right time, I guess?"

"That's great." Jim repeated, doing his best to keep a smile on his face for her sake.

She'd kept her word and been there to visit him every single available day, she'd taken his calls even when he could only get phone time at odd hours and as happy as he was to see things falling into place for her -seeing how much was changing only served as a reminder that his life was on hold.

He wasn't a detective anymore.  
He was told when to sleep, wake up, eat and shower.  
Every single minute of his days were already planned out for him.

The monotony was really starting to weather his resolve and now being out with the rest of the population, he was starting to feel a sense of doom.

The wing his cell was on was known as World's End, the day he was transferred there the warden told him it earned that name because for most everyone there, it's the end; only way out would be parole or a body bag.  
And nobody gets parole.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Harvey called out as he entered the sitting area with them, "Get a load of this guy! You look good, brother. This place agrees with you. Maybe I'll check in. Lose a few pounds, hmm? Get a cool tat."

Bird eyed the detective as he walked closer, trying to see from the look on his face just how serious the talk with his friend had been, but if it was of something dire -he wasn't giving it away.

"You don't need to check up on me." Jim said the same thing he told them both every time one would come to see him.  
Though this was the first time since his first day there that they'd been there at the same time.

"You kidding me?" Bullock slapped him on the shoulder as he walked around to take a seat next to Bird, "Highlight of my week is seeing your smiling face."

"Did you tell him?" Bullock asked, looking to Bird and then back to Jim as he cheerfully teased, "She's got good news."

"I heard." Jim managed another smile, thinking Bullock was talking about her getting a job with the company.

"No, not that." Bird practically read his mind, "He doesn't even know about that."

"About what?" Bullock asked, but didn't get an answer when Bird held up a hand to silence him and told Jim, "There is a very real possibility that the DA's office is going to reopen the case."

"On what grounds?" Jim questioned.

"On the grounds that you're innocent." She retorted.

"She's practically been staking out Dent's office." Bullock explained, "But it's paid off. So now it's up to you, Jim. Gotta keep your nose clean. Last thing you need is to end up doing more time cause you lost your temper, alright?"

"Ah, shouldn't be too hard." Jim's voice dripped with sarcasm, "Everyone seems real nice around here."

"I'm still looking for Penguin. See what he's got to say. He's laying low someplace, but don't worry. I'll find him." Bullock promised.

"I told you he's got nothing to do with this." Bird's tone slipped right into anger.  
Her best friend was off trying to live his life away from the city and away from the bloodstained past he'd walked away from.

The last thing she wanted was GCPD showing up at his father's estate and stirring up trouble, especially not after Grace's reaction to learning about his crimes.

"She knows where he is." Bullock sighed, nodding over to where Bird was sitting, "Just won't tell me. Doesn't matter though, I'll find him."

"No, you won't." She snapped, "I told you to back off and leave him alone."

Turning to face his partner, Bullock questioned, "You hear how she talks to me?"

Jim let out a small laugh.  
The first time he'd laughed in he couldn't remember when.

They were probably the most unusual pair to be working together on anything at all, but when it came down to it, Jim couldn't think of anyone else he'd rather have in his corner.

"Hey, how's Lee?" He questioned, looking between them, "She was writing to me a lot, but then a few weeks ago the letters stopped. You know why?"

"You made it pretty clear where you stood, Jim." Bird reminded him, "You told her to move on with her life."

"I know and that's still what I want." Jim swore, "But the letters just stopped all at once. Kinda hard not to worry."

When he saw the expressions on their faces he asked, "What happened?"

Bird and Bullock exchanged looks, which turned into a staring competition until Bird motioned with her head towards Jim. Making clear that Harvey needed to be the one to deliver the news.

"I didn't want to be the one to tell you this-"

"Tell me what?"

"Lee lost the baby, Jim." Bullock answered, "I'm so sorry."

Bird nodded, "Jim, I'm-"

"How is she?" He asked, blinking rapidly but it did little to stop the tears that were welling up in his eyes.

"I think she's fine. She moved down south." Bullock tried to answer, but he didn't have many details to offer up, "No one's really heard from her since."

Bird's face twisted up as she watched the tears start to make their way down his ever-reddening cheeks.

"I'm sorry." Bird repeated, her voice soft and growing hoarse.

With a nod, Jim started to get to his feet, "Congratulations on the new job."

"Jim?" Bullock rose to his feet as well, but Jim wouldn't look at him as he started back for the prison and called over his shoulder, "It was good to see you, Harv."

"Jim, I'm gonna get you out of here, I promise." His chest felt tight as he watched him leave, knowing that the weight of something like this would make it harder for him to survive on the inside, "Jim! Don't let this break you. Don't give up hope. Jim!"

Once he was gone, Bullock dropped back onto the bench and angrily slapped the top of the table.

"We have to get him out of here." He said, shaking his hand out to the side where his skin was stinging from the impact.

"I know." Bird somehow managed to say.

"My buddy, says they got him in F Wing, you know what they call that place? World's End, cause it's the end of the line. He ain't gonna last much longer in there. We have to get him out, we have to-" Bullock carried on until Bird cut him off as she said, "Have dinner with me."

With a snort, he joked, "No offense, but you're not really my type."

"Oh, ha-ha." She rolled her eyes before leaning in and saying, "We're not exactly in the right place to be hatching this type of plan."

He followed her line of sight up to the roof where the guards were and nodded in understanding.

"Dinner?" Bird repeated, "Delmonico's, meet me at seven."

"That Italian steakhouse uptown?" He realized as he got stood back up to follow her out when she started to walk away, "Okay, crazy eyes, but you're buying."

"Fair enough." Bird agreed, "See you at seven. Reservation under Falcone."

"Wait, what?" Bullock asked as he came to a stop, but the only answer he got was the door to the building shutting in his face behind her.

•••

"Sorry." Bird apologized as she reached the table where Carmine Falcone was sitting in the upscale restaurant, "The only thing my driver actually got me to on time today was a meeting this morning."

"I heard it went well." Falcone said as he stood up to greet her with a smile, "Congratulations."

After exchanging a greeting of alternating cheek kisses, they took their seats and Bird admitted, "There's something I need to speak to you about."

"Oh?" He asked, taking a drink from his glass, "Something wrong?"

With an appreciative smile at their waiter when he brought her a stem glass with ice water, she watched as another staff member added a third chair to their table.

"Is someone joining us?" He guessed, watching as she squeezed some of the juice from the lemon garnish on her glass into her water.

"I hope you don't mind. I invited a friend." Looking down to her new watch, Bird sighed, "Who was supposed to have already been here."

"Good evening, Bullock." Falcone greeted as he spotted the detective nearing their table, seeming rather out of place in the choice of dining establishment.

"Evening." He replied, as he reached out to shake his hand before taking a seat with them.

"I see your choice in friends has changed." Falcone commented with a knowing look as he watched his daughter.

He already knew this dinner intrusion had to be related to Jim Gordon's extended lockup in Blackgate.  
In truth, he'd been waiting for Bird to ask him for help, but up until now she hadn't so much as spoke more than a couple words about the disgraced detective.

"You know, Harvey… it's very rude to wear a hat indoors." Falcone stated looking over to him.

With a nervous expression on his face and his eyes slightly bulged, he quickly pulled his hat off and laid it to the side.

Retired from organized crime or not, Falcone's towering stature and domineering presence was enough to make anyone feel on edge.

"How you been?" Bullock questioned as he adjusted in his seat, "How's retirement treating you?"

"Very well." He politely replied.

When Bullock opened his mouth again, Falcone nodded to the menu laying on the table and said, "Let's order dinner first, yes? Then we'll discuss business."

Once they'd all placed their orders for food, Falcone looked between them and said, "I believe you're here to talk about James Gordon?"

"Look." Bullock began as he poured some of the beer from the bottle he'd been brought into a glass, "Jim didn't kill Pinkney. We all know it. The thing is, who'd set him up any way? I don't know ho much longer he can stay alive in that place."

"They've taken him out of protective custody." Bird added, "They moved to F Wing."

"World's End." Falcone was familiar with the ins and outs of Blackgate and he knew very well that F Wing lived up to it's nickname.

"The only way outa that place is gonna be in a body bag." Bullock sighed, "You've got every right telling me to go to hell, but you're probably Jim's last hope."

Pulling in a deep breath, Falcone looked over to where Bird had gone mute and asked, "Still no word from Cobblepot? I'm surprised you didn't go to your friend first."

Bird's head lowered as she bit down on the side of her tongue.

Her trespasses against Falcone might have all been forgiven, but they certainly weren't forgotten and given the chance, he made sure she didn't forget them either.

"Even if Oswald was still running the show, we both know he wouldn't have the kind of juice it would take to pull something like this off." Bird finally said, her eyes still glued down to the polished table surface.

Besides, even if he did, Bird wouldn't ask him to.

As it was, Oswald had sat in Arkham for weeks on end, enduring god knows that kind of so called therapy -paying for a crime that Jim had actually done.

In her mind Oswald didn't owe Jim anything.

Even knowing their family ties and having grown closer as of late, all it took was one stern conversation or a sideways glance from her biological father to make her feel like she was back to working under him.  
Back when she used to be afraid of the repercussions for stepping a toe out of line.

Pulling in a deep breath, she raised her head to look at him as she openly admitted, "Jim's a friend. His life holds value to me and if I can't get him out of Blackgate, then I'm going to lose him. He's not safe in there."

"My dear." Falcone watched her closely, "All you have to is ask."

Bird glanced across the table to where Bullock was sitting, before turning back to Falcone, "I need your help. Please."

•••

"If you've been staying in contact with Falcone why the hell didn't you get his help sooner?" Bullock questioned staying just steps behind Bird as she headed for where he driver was parked waiting on her, "We could have done had Jim outa there!"

"Because I was hoping I could find another way." Bird answered, her shoulders dropped in defeat as she muttered, "Any other way, really."

"Why?" He asked, speeding up to talk to her, "You're telling me you had a way to get Jim out of there before they ever took him out of protective custody and all you did was sit with it. You left him in there where he could have been killed-"

"No, this isn't on me." She defended whirling around to face him, "I didn't frame him. None of this is my fault."

"I just don't get it." He argued with her, "You say he's a friend and then you stop short of pulling out all the stops."

"You don't get it, Harvey." She sighed, reaching up and rubbing her forehead. "My days of having to ask for favors from the Don are supposed to over. So far in the rearview that I can't even see it anymore."

"Sure." His eyebrows raised, "Only he's not just a Don, he's your father."

"He is Carmine Falcone." Bird quickly shut that line of conversation down. "Biological father or not, retired or not -he's still the biggest mafia boss that Gotham has ever known. The same one who forced me into working with Victor Zsasz to harden me up. Backhanded me across the face for working against him and had the man that I loved beaten so badly he was hospitalized to keep me in line."

"So yeah." She scoffed, "We might share DNA and I've forgiven him for a lot. It's not like I've got a surplus of family, so yeah, we have the occasional dinner and catch up. But I will never forget the kind of man he is and he is someone that I don't care to be in debt of."

With furrowed brows he slowly nodded when he could see the pain on her face.  
At first it hadn't made sense why she wouldn't have played this card to help Jim, but having it all laid out on the table had a way of changing an outsiders prospective.

"Okay, you're right." He succeeded, "I'm not lookin' to be in anyone's debt either-"

"I am so sick of you acting like I've not been pulling my weight here. I have put in just as much, if not more than you, of time and energy to try and help Jim." Her voice raised and all the emotion and anger she'd been holding in that had nothing to do with Bullock started to trickle over, "How many times have I put my neck on the line for him, huh? You too for that matter!"

Holding his hands up as a sign of surrender, his head cocked to the side as he questioned, "You alright there?"

"I'm fine." Bird dismissed as if she hadn't just had a mini-meltdown.

"You don't really sound fine." He retorted, but the tone in his voice showed he wasn't looking for a fight.

Turning away from him, she briskly walked over to where her driver was already waiting with the backdoor open for her. Leaving a confused Detective Bullock behind on the sidewalk.

Letting out a sigh, he rubbed a hand over his head before pulling his hat back on and blowing out a heavy breath with his breathing showing in the cold night air.

Bird had a point, she had devoted a lot of her time to trying to help Jim and even before his current predicament, she'd helped them more times than he could count.

Pushing the thoughts and any bit of guilt that her words might have stirred, Bullock went over to where he'd parked his car and hoped that everything would go as planned the next night.

They couldn't afford for it not too.

••• **the next night •••**

"You seem tense, my dear." Falcone observed as he looked over to where Bird was sitting was sitting in the car next to him.

"Maybe this was too soon." Bird voiced her worries, "We didn't have time to let Jim in on the plan. If he doesn't understand what's going on or doesn't play along then-"

"There wasn't time." He reminded her, "Trying to hold off another week would have left too big an opportunity for someone else to get to him first."  
Pausing for a moment he assured her, "You made the right call."

"Yeah, but I should be there." She said so quietly he could barely hear her when she turned her head to look across the river at Gotham City.

"Too risky." Falcone dismissed, "Someone could have seen you outside of Blackgate, and if that were to happen then we'd have an even larger mess to try and clean up."

Bird nodded in agreement, but she didn't say anything.

She was used to being the one taking action, not the one giving orders and sitting back waiting for someone else to do her bidding.

Despite Falcone assuring her that his men on the inside would make sure the plan went off without a hitch, Bird didn't possess the same trust in people that her biological father did.

The plan was simple.  
Simpler was better, she'd been assured.

It was movie night at the prison which mean everyone would be in the same room together, easy for utter chaos to break out.

Enough chaos to shield the fact that one of the other prisoners was going to slip a bag of fake blood under Jim's shirt and then make a scene about stabbing him to death with a retractible blade.

Just Bullock had said from the beginning; the only way Jim was going to get out of Blackgate would be in a body bag.

Once he was safely outside of the prison, Bullock would be waiting with an ambulance to whisk him away out of the city.

"I spoke to my men." He said stirring her from her thoughts, "If he chooses, they'll be able to get him out of the country tonight."

"Thank you." She cleared her throat, "I don't think he'll need it. Jim's not going to run."

Looking over at her, he was silent for a few passing moments before pointing out, "Staying in Gotham is only going to keep him at risk."

"I know him." Bird confidently said, "And he knows that if he starts running, it's never going to end. No, he's going to insist on staying to clear his name."

"And then what?" Falcone questioned, keeping a close eye on her even though she was refusing to turn his direction, "Get his job back? Rush back to the GCPD?"

Silently, she nodded.

As she said, she knew him.  
She understood that first and foremost he identified as a cop and that wasn't ever going to change.

"Ah." Falcone spoke just before he exhaled and turned to look out of the car window beside him.  
Clearly having came to a realization of something that he wasn't planning on sharing.

"Ah?" Bird echoed, "Ah, what?"

"Nothing I say is going to matter." He simply replied, but when Bird's face scrunched up in confusion, he elaborated, "Logic seldom triumphs in matters of the heart."

He'd known Bird had grown close to the detective, but it wasn't until now that he'd realized exactly how deep her feelings for him ran.

"It's not-" Bird shook her head, face contorting again, "It's complicated."

"Always is."

Holding the breath she'd pulled in deep in her lungs, Bird turned her head and stared forward.

The sun would be coming up in a little over an hour and if everything went as planned, that was just about the time they should be meeting up with Bullock and Jim.

•••

"We made it, buddy." Jim breathed in a breath of cold air from the open windows and rested his hand on Peter Davies' shoulder, or Puck as he preferred to be called.

The young man who'd insisted on staying by Jim's side in Blackgate, and who'd recently taken a severe beating from inmates for doing so.

Puck had called Jim a hero from the beginning. Said he'd saved his sister from the child snatchers the year before and made it very clear, despite Jim's protests, that he greatly admired the detective.

In one of their chats while they were both getting bandaged up in the infirmary, Puck had told him of how his grandfather lived and died in prison, and that all he wanted was to not end up like him.

Knowing that once he was gone, Puck would continue to pay for aligning himself with Jim, he knew he couldn't leave him behind.  
Which led to his going back inside Blackgate one last time.

With the best attempt at a smile he could manage with the large amount of swelling on his disfigured face, Puck nodded and squinted with his blurry eyes out of the ambulance window out across the water to the city they'd left behind.

As Bullock slowed the ambulance to a stop on the old iron bridge, Jim instructed to Puck, "Wait here."

Once they were out of the ambulance, Jim came to a stop when he saw the driver of one of the sleek back cars getting out to open the rear door.

"Don Falcone had all the contacts inside of Blackgate." Bullock explained as they watched the retired crime boss get out of the car.

"You went to Falcone?" Jim couldn't hide the surprise on his face.

"It's a little more complicated than that." Bullock spoke in quiet voice as they met up with Falcone on the bridge.

"Thank you." Jim sincerely said as he extended his hand to Falcone, "I'm not sure I can ever repay you."

"That won't be necessary." Falcone dismissed, pulling in a deep breath of the brisk early morning air, "My daughter, is as intelligent as she is beautiful, and believes in her heart of hearts that your life is worth saving."

Jim's brows furrowed before he looked past where Falcone was standing to see Bird slowly getting out of the car, as if she was unsure of what to do now and he realized she was the one who set the entire plan in motion.

"She possesses many old world traits for someone so young." He continued, as he kept a firm grip on Jim's hand, "Her loyalty, for example, is unmatched. Much as I expect yours would be for her, now."

He might have been retired from the crime game for over a year now, but he'd never been in the business of using time and resources to save someone who wouldn't return the favor or even worse; end up stabbed in the back.

Slowly, Jim nodded his head and looked down when the older man finally let go of his hand.

"Besides." Falcone stated, as he stepped sideways to watch as Bird walked over to join them, "I'm always happy to help an old friend."

"There she is!" Bullock called out, "The woman of the hour."  
He waited to see her reaction, gauge if she was still angry with him or if they were past the words exchanged from the night before.

During the increased time they spend together while Jim was incarcerated, they'd had more than a few disagreements that usually ended with her storming out and then back in a few days as if nothing had ever gone sour.

"Took you long enough." Bird replied, her eyes narrowed slightly at him in wonder of what exactly had taken so long. They were supposed to meet up over an hour earlier.

"Yeah, we hit a few snags, but nothing that couldn't be worked out." He vaguely answered as he looked back behind him the ambulance

"I'm just glad you're safe." She confided, turning to face Jim as she spoke.

"Thanks to you, I hear." He replied with a small smile, "Thank you."

Stepping forward she wrapped her arms around him.  
He was out of Blackgate and whatever path he took from here was sure to put him right back on the path of danger, but for the moment, as fleeting as it may be, he was safe.

"It's good to see you." She softly said, still holding onto him.

"You have no idea." He echoed the sentiment with her folded in his arms.  
He could smell the left over scent of wood burning fire that clung to her hair and coat from where she'd spent the better part of the evening just in front of the grand fire place in her new townhouse.

It was an embrace he didn't even know he needed so badly until it was happening.

For weeks on end the only physical contact he'd had was violent.  
Either from guards roughly pushing him into his cell, dragging him along when they didn't think he was moving fast enough -to the brutality of the beatings other inmates were always at the ready to inflict.

He'd all but forgotten what kindness felt like; how soft and warm human touch could be.

"So, what now?" Bullock asked, eyeing the pair as they finally separated.

"You're asking me?" Jim scoffed, "A few hours ago I was a dead man."

"I have people who can get you out of the country." Falcone explained, "Or we can try and get you a safe place in Gotham. It's your choice."

Everyone watched him in silence as he walked over to the edge of the bridge and looked across to the smog covered skyline of Gotham City.

"What'll it be?" Falcone was the first to speak.

"I have to clear my name." Jim stated, still staring across the water as he continued, "To do that, I have to go back to Gotham."

Eyeing where Bird was standing at his side, knowing she was exactly right about what choice Jim would make, Falcone reasoned, "Then you have your answer."

"It's not going to be easy." Bird reminded him.

"A part of me wants to run." He admitted turning back to face them, his eyes landed on her, "Out here, breathing this fresh air… I can't go back inside."

"If you run, you'll have to keep running." Falcone said the same thing Bird had said just earlier that morning in the car, "Some people can live with that."

Bird nodded, but she held her tongue.

She wanted him to stay, but the decision had to be fully his and his alone.

"You're a fighter, Jim. You got knocked down." Bullock chimed in, apparently not above trying to convince his partner and friend to stay in the city, "You stay down or you get back up?"

Pulling in another deep breath of the crisp air, he did his best to smile as he called out, "What do you think, kid?"

Everyone looked to where Puck was slumped over in the ambulance, his head rested against the door where the window was rolled down, filling the cab of the vehicle with fresh air.

"Puck?" Jim yelled as he ran over to check on him.

"No. No!" He lifted the younger man's head and started to tap on his cheeks, "No, we made it. Come on. Come on, Puck! Come on, don't give up!"

Bird looked to Bullock and then back over to where Jim's tone was growing more frantic by the second.

Walking over to him, she got a good look at the blood stained and bruised face of the kid, Jim, was calling Puck.

She didn't know him; but she'd seen enough death in her time to know that no amount of hitting his face or yelling at him would get him to stir.

"Jim." Bird placed her hand on his arm, "He's gone."

With his teeth gritted in rage at the loss of another innocent life, Jim finally let go of Puck and walked back over to the edge of the bridge, turning his back on everyone there with him.

He'd never really intended to run.

But the loss of Puck's life cemented exactly why he needed to stay.

Gotham couldn't continue on the path the city was going.

Law and crime were all tangled up in one another, to the point where even the most honest of the police force saw a city painted in shades of gray.

There was no right and wrong -there was only the lesser of two evils.

It had to stop and the only way he could make a difference would be to stay in the city, clear his name and get his job and badge back.

•••

* * *

 **A/N - Jim's out of Blackgate now. Where's all my Bim shippers?  
Haha. That's what me and my bestie, Miss E Charlotte, came up with for Bird and Jim a while back. :P  
**

 **Anyways, I hope you all liked the chapter.  
I know the holidays are upon us, but I'm still going to be doing my best to get semi-regular updates posted.  
Maybe it will help us all get through the winter hiatus for Gotham together. :P**

 **A huge thanks to: Shadow knight1121, DancingDorisDay, Katniss789, Starlog246, Rasiel Hasu, PetrovaLover, chodofaggins, Love. Fiction. 2017, Munyue, HQS, Amelia, xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, SmellYourScentForMiles, Kakkorat is Cake, Caroline and to the Guests who reviewed the last chapter.**

 **Also, not sure how many of you are on Tumblr, but I post some edits for my stories on there. You can find me at: twofacedharveydent**


	25. Us Against the World

**XXV**

" _All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride."- Sophocles, Antigone_

* * *

•••

After looking through the peephole on her door, Bird opened it with a confused expression, "Harvey?"

"Hey." He greeted back, before he walked right past her without an invitation into the townhouse, that from the outside, looked a hell of a lot like the brownstone they'd bought together the year before.

"What are you doing here?" She questioned her ex, "Wait, how do you even know I live here?"

Turning back around to face her he admitted, "I stopped by Wayne Manor. Alfred told you moved."

"Oh…" Bird breathed as she eyed him.  
Good old Harvey Dent, who both her brother and Alfred still thought very highly of.

Her jaw tensed at the thought.  
If they only knew how his anger had turned on her and made him violent, she doubted that Alfred would have been so willing to send him to her doorway.

"This is for you." He said holding out a small potted plant, "A housewarming present."

"A plant?" She questioned with a laugh, "Harvey, you know I can't keep these things alive-"

"It's bamboo." He interrupted, "Just keep the base full with water and you should be good to go."

"Uh…" Bird pulled in a breath and looked at him with her cheeks puffed out, before she loudly exhaled and in a questioning tone said, "Thanks…"

Harvey nodded, trying his best to put a smile on his face as he looked around the entryway of her new house.

The truth was, he'd stopped about halfway on way to her place and ended up getting out at a small market to decide if he was doing the right thing or not.

They might not still be together, but that didn't mean he still didn't care about her.

Even so, he'd been keeping his distance from her for good reason.

Not only did they tend to get wrapped up in each other all over again when they crossed paths, but she also had a tendency of letting things slip that his knowledge of would be incriminating -and he couldn't have that.

In the end, he'd left the market with a bamboo plant that one of the overly pushy vendors had talked him into and his mind made up that he was going to try and help her, talk some sense into her, even if she didn't want to hear it.

"Tell me you didn't do it, Starling." He finally revealed his true intentions for showing up on her doorstep.

Still holding the small planter in her hands, she didn't verbally answer but her eyebrows shot halfway up her forehead in confusion.

"That you didn't break Jim out of Blackgate." He clarified, "Tell you didn't do it."

"I didn't do it." She immediately repeated back.

"How could I have even pulled something like that off, Harvey?" She continued.

"I don't know." He admitted, his eyes going over to the sitting room off to the right, "Maybe you called in some favors-"

"That would be one hell of a favor." She was quick to snap.

"Maybe so, but it doesn't feel like it was all that long ago I drove you around this city trying to find your brother when a hit was put out on Selina Kyle." He cleared his throat, "You had more than a few contacts out on the streets."

"That was a very long time ago." Bird argued with him, "Fish is dead. Falcone's retired, probably sitting on a beach somewhere. No one has seen Oswald since Arkham released him. Butch and I didn't exactly terminate our friendship on good terms. I don't have anyone who could have pulled that off. Is this why you showed up? To accuse me of-"

"Drop the act." His voice raised, "You're lying."

"I am not!" She yelled back at him; knowing full well that she was.

"You showed up at my office almost every day since Jim's sentencing, you put calls in to everyone -including the mayor, swearing he'd been framed and then all of a sudden no one's heard anything from you and he escaped from prison. Am I really supposed to be believe that's a coincidence?" He verbally ran through everything that had been weighing on his mind, but it didn't stop there.

He didn't much care for it, but at least he could understand when she'd tell him that she _couldn't_ tell him something.  
But lying right to his face was an entirely different situation.

One that left his blood feeling like it had been set to a boil under his skin.

"And you really expect me to believe that you're not still in contact with Cobblepot? Come on!" His voice boomed through the first floor of her house. Bouncing off the walls and echoing back to crash around inside of her skull.

Bird stared back at him, unsure of how to react or what to say to him.  
Partly because she couldn't wrap her head around why on earth he was so angry with her.

It wasn't like her aiding in Jim's escape could come back on him; they'd been broken up for quite some time now.

"If you had a hand in what happened at Blackgate, then you understand you probably got Jim out of prison only to send yourself there, right?" His voice was still raised and she didn't miss the sight of his hand balled into a fist at his side.

Yep, still the same old Harvey.  
Going from calm to seeing red faster than a bullet.

And even after all this time she apparently could still hit just the right buttons to set him aflame.

"Barnes isn't going to stop until he has answers, Starling." His tone grew even more domineering, like if he could hit just the right octave then she'd know how much trouble she was putting herself in the path of, "If he's able to trace this back to you, then there is nothing I can do. You will serve time for this. Hard time."

"I'm a big girl, Harvey." Bird's voice lowered back to indoor speaking range, even though she knew it wasn't going to bring his down, "I can take care of myself."

"Not in a place like that. You barely survived Arkham." He harshly reminded her.

"Oh?" She yelled, her expression coming to life, "And how would you know? You couldn't even be bothered to pick up the phone when I'd call!"

"That has nothing to do with this!" He yelled back, stepping closer as his height towered over her and his eyes grew darker, "This is about you going right back to making one stupid choice after another. You say you don't need anyone watching out for you, but the truth is that you do, because left to your own devices you make one wrong decision after another."

Biting down on the side of her tongue so hard she could taste blood, Bird shook her head.  
At the moment she could think of more than a few wrong decisions she's made, more than one of them involving the enraged man standing in front of her.

Stepping closer to the door, Bird was about to tell him that he needed to leave, but more than anything she was still confused about why he'd come in there in the first place -other than to apparently yell at her for her life choices he didn't agree with.

"What do you want?" She threw her arms out and let them drop limply at her sides, "Why are you here?"

Walking back up to her, he tried to lower his voice, but the pounding in his head kept him from being able to relax, "To help you!"

"Help me, how?" Her own voice raised to match his level, but grew shrill in tone as she screamed, "All you've done is yell at me!"

"Damn it!" He yelled as his hand landed flat against the wall right next to where her head was, "I don't want to see you throw your life away over this!"

Feeling the painful stinging from where his hand had collided with the wall and the ache from the pressure in his wrist, he blinked his eyes rapidly trying to focus his vision.

When he opened them again, he saw how his hand was positioned right next to her head on the wall beside her and Bird had her eyes closed and face turned away from where his arm still was.

"Oh my god…" He breathed, shaking his head in disbelief at himself, "I'm… I'm sorry."

When she slowly opened her eyes and turned back to face him, she saw the same broken look in his puppy dog eyes that he'd wear every single time he came back from flying off the handle.

"I'm sorry." He repeated, moving his hand from the wall and taking a step back to stop crowding her, "I just…"  
He ran his tongue over his lips, knowing no amount of apologies would fix what happened.

"This is really serious." He exhaled with an even more defeated look on face, "If GCPD isn't already looking into you then it's only a matter of time -and I know better than anyone that you don't need the police, especially Barnes, taking an interest in your life all over again.

"I'm just trying to help you." Harvey defended, seeming shorter than he did minutes before, now that his posture was slouched in shame.

"I- I… I didn't mean-" He stumbled through another attempt at an apology, but she cut him off, "I know."

Tucking her hair behind her ears, she quietly said, "I think you should go."

Nodding, he ran a hand over his hair.  
Feeling like there was more he should say, but it wouldn't do anyone any good.

"Take care of yourself." He softly said as Bird pulled the door open and stood to the side waiting for him to leave.  
Harvey paused for a few extra seconds, waiting to see if she had anything to say, but when she held her silence his eyes dropped to the floor and he left through the open door.

Closing it behind him, Bird let out the breath she hadn't even been aware she was holding and rested her forehead against the door.

"Golden boy's got a temper, huh?"

Straightening her posture, she turned to give a Bullock a look as he walked into view with an open box of cracker chips in his hand.

Popping another one into his mouth, his voice was muffled as he questioned, "He get like that a lot?"

Refusing to give him an answer, she walked past him and down the hallway where she came to a stop outside one of the spare rooms with a set of closed double doors.

Grabbing onto the handles, she pushed the doors open, where Jim was standing just inside with a worried look on his face.

"Are you okay?" He questioned.

"Let's get to work." Bird ignored him and barely so much as glanced at him when she breezed past him, over the wall where where various news paper clipping and copies of pages from the case against Jim was pinned up.

When Jim turned to look at Bullock, his partner gave a small shrug and stated, "About put his fist through the wall."

"Harvey Dent is the least of our concern." Bird spun around to face them both, before she reached over and picked up an open file off the table and dropped into a seat in one of the overstuffed chairs.

Jim stared at her with a knowing and troubled expression.

He knew of Dent hurting her at least one time in the past and had always suspicious that it wasn't an isolated incident.

Bird's words still hung in his mind from the day she'd told him that when she was with Harvey things would either be really good or really bad -yet when prompted, she wouldn't elaborate on just how bad exactly.

"He's right about one thing." Bullock sat the box of snacks down and picked up the half empty bottle of beer he'd been drinking before there had been a knock at the door, "Barnes is on the hunt."

With furrowed brows, Jim questioned, "Did Barnes threaten you?"

"Doesn't matter." Bullock dismissed, neglecting to tell anyone how his boss had threatened to bring the entire force of the GCPD down on him if he found out he was aiding Jim in anyway, even so much as giving him a glass of water, "I busted you out of jail, remember? I made my choice!"

After downing another swallow of beer, he held his other hand out and said, "As your friend, I gotta tell you something. You can still run. Go to an island, buy a banana boat, grow a beard… have a life. Barnes is on the hunt, you don't have much time, brother."

"Okay, let's say I run." Jim humored him, "What then? Spend the rest of my days living as a fugitive?"

"I can call Falcone." Bird chimed in, not looking up from the evidence file she was reading through, "If you're going to run then-"

"No." Jim was quick to intervene in her train of thought, "I have to clear my name. Otherwise, I might as well be in jail."

Bird let the folder fall onto her lap as she reached up and rubbed her eyes. It felt like all she'd done for the last few days was read police reports and stare at evidence photos.

"I know." Jim let out a tired breath and sympathized, "I've been over this all of this a thousand times."

"And did you get anywhere?" She asked, looking up to where he was standing.

"It all has to be connected; the theft at the art museum, the bombing at the train station, the I.A. tip off, Pinkney's murder. It's all a part of an elaborate frame." Jim shrugged.

"I've been working this case since you went away. Now, I'm not saying it's hopeless, but I've gotten nowhere in all that time. Even with her help." Bullock motioned to where Bird was sitting and staring towards the wall seeming very much lost in her own head since Dent's departure.

"So our guy is smart, meticulous, got technical skill and access?" Bullock continued to think out loud, hoping something might click.

"A cop?" Bird guessed.

"Has to be." Jim nodded, "Only way he could have access to a crowbar after it was put into evidence."

Bird stayed quiet and listened as Bullock complained that the revelation didn't exactly narrow down the suspect pool any, not with Jim's knack for making enemies.

Between the two of them they'd came up with a list of about twelve names of fellow officers who'd hate him so much they'd go to the trouble to set him up for a murder.

"Loeb loyalists." Jim exclaimed as he looked down to the list of complied names, "Who knows, maybe Loeb himself is behind this."

"For the record." Bird broke her silence and looked at them as she readjusted in the chair and crossed her legs up underneath her, "I offered to kill Loeb for you over a year ago, remember? We were all holed up in the hospital after Falcone got attacked and Maroni's men showed up to shower us with bullets? I said we should have killed him then-"

"No." Jim sternly said, "We've not killing anyone."

"Well…" Bullock sighed, "Before we jump down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole, I'm gonna need more beer."

Spinning around in the doorway to face them again he asked, "Jim, you want one?" Looking to Bird he questioned, "Crazy eyes?"

When they both declined he left the room, "Suit yourselves."

Turning back to face Bird after watching his partner disappear down the hallway en-route to the kitchen, Jim questioned, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." She didn't give much time or thought to her answer.

Moving over to sit in the chair next where she was at, he sat down and turned to look at her, "I could hear you screaming at one other from here."

"Yeah." She sighed with a feigned smile, "I really think he believes that in his own way, he's really trying to help me."

"That's doesn't make it okay." He argued.

"I know." Bird nodded, finally looking at him, "But it is what it is. I can handle him, don't worry."

"You shouldn't have to." He said, his eyebrows pushed together, still feeling like there was a lot to their relationship that he didn't know and the glimpses he saw -he didn't like.

Bird's eyes locked with his and the angry expression she'd been wearing from his prying into her life faded into a look of surprise.

Everyone, knowing what they knew about her, seemed to think that she must have been the problem in the relationship between her and Harvey Dent.

And while she didn't claim innocence in any of the rifts; it was often tiring to hear how everyone talked about what a great guy Dent was, while looking at her like she was on another level.

"You need a mini fridge back here." Bullock dumbly commented upon entering the room with a newly opened bottle of beer in his hand.

Abruptly coming to a stop to look at them sitting by one another and both wearing near matching expressions, he guessed, "I interrupt something?"

"Nope." Bird answered as Jim shook his head.

"Good." Bullock replied, "Cause we need to get down to business here. Clear your name-" He pointed to Jim, "Before me and Bird end up in cuffs."

Bird looked at him with her expression twisted up, thinking to herself that if Bullock ended up getting arrested for this, that he better as hell not rat on her involvement in it.

"What?" He scoffed, seeming to read her mind, "You think I'm going to go down for this alone?"

"If I'm arrested too, who the hell do you think is going to save your sorry ass from Blackgate?" She retorted.

With a laugh, Bullock pointed at her and said, "Yeah, yeah. Now you're just teasing me."  
Looking to Jim, he added, "She'd leave me to rot in there. Probably wouldn't even show up on visiting days."

With a half-smile, Jim stopped them before they got too sidetracked, "We need to focus."

"Yeah?" Bullock drank down a good portion of the bottle, "Where are gonna start?"

As if a light bulb had illuminated in his head, Jim looked to Bird and asked, "Didn't you say something earlier about I.A. recording incoming calls? Do they keep records of that?"

"Yeah." She nodded, thinking back to when she and Harvey were dating and the DA's office was bringing charges down on an officer who's partner had turned them into internal affairs, "Harvey told me that I.A. records and archives all they calls they get."

"Which means…" Bird led as a smile started to angle her lips up at the corners.

Nodding, Jim finished, "Which means the witness, the one that called into I.A. -the one they assumed was Pinkney, there should be a tape with his voice on it."

"Whew…" Bullock breathed, "That's a hell of a long shot, brother."

"It's all we've got." Bird reasoned.

Pulling his phone from his pocket and setting the newly empty bottle of beer down on an end table, Bullock crossed the room, "If that tape exists, it's going to be locked up tighter than a duck's ass in evidence."  
Glancing over to Jim, he smiled, "Lucky for you, Uncle Harvey has connections."

Jim and Bird both watched as Bullock dialed a number on his phone and then got a big, cheesy grin on his face while he waited for the call to be answered.

"Hey!" He called out into the speaker of the phone, "Ginny! How's my favorite I.A. sugar plum, huh?"

Jim's eyebrows raised and Bird had to cup a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing when Bullock nodded and kept the kept the smile on his face, "Well, why do you think I'm calling, baby?"

•••

" _I thought you were getting married?"_

" _She changed her mind."_

" _Smart girl."_

Jim and Bird stood out of sight, leaned up against up the wall outside of the apartment that Bullock had went into only moments before.

" _Mhm… you're an animal, Bullock!"_

The female I.A. detective's words were followed the sound of her slapping his face.

"Oh my god…" Bird whispered with a laugh and shake of the head.

Jim lowered his head and let out a laugh of his own.

" _Come on, Bullock."_

" _Yeah, baby. I'll be right there, just hold on for a second."_

Hearing the sounds of keys jingling right inside of the door, both Bird and Jim moved away from the wall. Not sure if it was Bullock with the keys to the internal affairs evidence lock up, or if Ginny was coming out.

As the door opened, they looked up to see Bullock, now wearing just his boxers and undershirt.

Spotting them in the shadows, he called out, "Hey. You got an hour, slip them under the door."

Jim effortlessly caught the set of keys his partner hurled at him.

" _Come on, Bullock! I ain't got all night!"_

"Hey, not a word!" He quickly said when he saw the look on Bird's face as she held back another laugh, before reminding them both, "An hour."

Once he was back in the apartment and the door was shut, Jim turned to face Bird as he reminded her, "You don't have to do this."

"Yes, I do." She was fast to correct, "Every minute you're still a fugitive is another minute that I'm at risk for being an accessory."

"Uh huh." Jim nodded following her down the hall when she turned and started to walk away from him, "That's the only reason?"

With a small laugh, Bird shook her head but didn't answer him as she reached the doors to the building and pushed them open.

The frigid night air nearly stole her breath and she quickly eyed the cars and passersbys on the streets to make sure no one was watching the place -or them.

It didn't take them long to reach the I.A. building, not with Bird knowing the city like the back of her hand and leading them through alley ways and short cuts he didn't even know existed.

Once they reached the building, Jim opened his mouth to tell Bird that he should go first, but before he could she'd already slid open the window and had a leg inside.

By the time he'd gotten himself climbed through the window, she was already waiting at the locked gate for him to unlock it.

"You seem like you've done this before." He spoke in a hushed tone as he jogged over to her and got to work on unlocking the gate.

"Not the internal affairs evidence room." Bird honestly answered, "But it should be cataloged the same as the regular evidence room, right?"

Stopping in the middle of what he was doing, Jim looked at her with his forehead lined, "Why were you in the GCPD evidence room?"

The answer he got from her was a coy smile and her reminding him that he was currently the one living life on the lam.

They had only made it steps inside, just past the computer where electronic copies of reports were kept when they heard a door open, following the sound of nearing voices.

Grabbing onto her hand, Jim pulled Bird over past the table and down next to some file cabinets that would keep them hidden from view of the hallway.

They stayed crouched down as they waited for the passing officers to make it down to the elevator at the other end of the hallway.

This was exactly why he'd told her multiple times that she should sit this out.  
She'd already risked so much for him and the last thing he wanted was for them both to get caught breaking into an evidence locker.

That -and the fact that he wasn't sure how she'd handle the situation if they were caught and he didn't want to see any fellow officer who was just doing their job to be injured or even worse.

Slowly, he raised up and watched as the male and female officers got into the elevator and the doors closed behind them.

"They're gone." Jim announced.

"Gordon, James." Bird spoke under her breath as she located the correct file in the cabinet and stood up to the place the full file on the table.

"How did you…" His voice trailed off.

He hadn't even heard her cross the small room, let alone open and root through a file cabinet.

"What?" Bird asked, looking up as he walked over to join her.

Shaking his head and thinking to himself that if she really had been in the GCPD evidence room, that no one would be the wiser of it.

He knew how to be quiet; how to move around as undetected as possible.

But Bird could move fast and without making a single sound.  
Just a shame, he thought, that she chose to use that mostly for nefarious means.

"This must be it." He said as he picked up a small padded manila envelope and opened it to reveal the small round tape containing the recording they were in search of.

"Good. Let's get out of here." Bird said, closing the folder and starting to walk away.

Quickly, with a hand on her arm, he brought her to a stop, "What are you doing? We have to put the file back."

"What if there is something else in here that we can use?" Bird protested.

"A missing tape is one thing-" He started to reason.

"This thing is the twice the size of the file Bullock copied from the station." She was at the ready with an argument of her own.

"Entire case files don't just get up and walk away, okay?" His voice rose slightly, "A picture or tape, a page of a report can be blamed on human error. They can't know I was here."

"You're putting an awful lot of faith into one little tape, Jim." Bird sighed, her eyes narrowing at him while she pulled her arm out of his grip.

"This is too risky." He shook his head back and forth and reached for the folder, letting out a pained noise when Bird slapped his hand away from it.

"It's too risky to not take this." She countered, "You-"

"This isn't just about me." He was quick to remind her.  
Pulling in a deep breath he was gearing up to tell her that this could fall back on Bullock too, but before he got the chance she cupped a hand over his mouth to physically shut him up.

Taking hold of her wrist he started to pull her hand away until he heard the approaching footsteps and understood why'd resorted to covering his mouth.

Bird flatted her back against the wall int he small little alcove next to the computer table and pulled him in there with her, it was their best chance of staying hidden.

Someone passing by might not notice them tucked into there, but they sure as hell would have seen two people standing in the middle of the room.

Letting out a small sigh at how he hadn't heard the steps before, or even at the same time she had; he looked at her face and became all to aware of just how close they were.

His body was pressed against hers, both of them trying to be as silent and still as humanly possible.  
Even so, he didn't become aware of the sounds from his own breathing until her eyes darted up and locked with his.

Quickly breaking eye contact, Bird closed her eyes for a second, trying her best to not think about how he was close to her that she could smell the mint gum on his breath with his every exhale.

She didn't need a distraction.  
No, for the moment she had to remain focused on their surroundings, listing for the slightest hint of movement around them and trying gauge if the footsteps were still getting closer, or if the threat had passed.

Picking up on the sound of a couple of voices, she listened as she heard at least three guys discussing which all night food chain they were going to pick up their lunch from.

Bird let out a small sigh, wishing they'd just make up their minds as they were heading out the door or even out in a car.

"Hey." Jim whispered just loud enough for her to hear him, "We can't take the whole file. It would end up coming back on Bullock and he's already on thin ice with Barnes because of me."

Finally looking back to his face, she ran her tongue over her bottom lip, "There is no way of knowing if the person on that tape is even the one framed you. They could have disguised their voice or gotten someone else to call. It's too big of a risk to bet everything on it."

"It's too big of a risk to take it." His eyes traveled back up her face until they met hers, "If the tape is dead end, then we'll find another way."

When he saw the corners of her mouth angle down, Jim pulled in a breath and prepared for another argument; to further justify why they couldn't take anything more than the the tape.

Bird shook her head. She understood where he was coming from, but voices were easy to disguise with the right equipment.

Not to mention there was also a chance that someone had been paid or hired to call in the tip.  
What if the one who framed him wasn't on the tape at all.

"We broke you out of Blackgate." Bird was quick to remind him, "Do you understand how big of a deal that is? Like a one in a million chance of it going off without a hitch. If you end up back inside…" Her voice trailed off and he saw her forehead line.

"I know-" He started to say, but was cut off when she slapped the folder against the center of his chest hard enough to force the air from his lungs.

"Thanks." Jim managed to croak out as he reached up and grabbed onto the folder.

Rolling her eyes, Bird muttered something under her breath that he couldn't quite make out as she slipped out from between his body and the wall.

With the officers that had been nearby gone, they needed to take the opportunity to get out of the evidence room before anyone came back.

An opportunity she seized while he was still trying to get the folder back into the file cabinet she'd found it in.

By the time he'd climbed back out of the window, he'd just barely caught sight of her back as she disappeared around the far corner of the building.

Shaking his head, he stuck his hand in his coat pocket to make sure the I.A. tape was going to stay safe before he jogged after her.

After he caught up to her, it took a few minutes of them trekking through melting snow and sludge on the sidewalks in complete silence before he stated,"You're mad at me."

Looking at him for the first time since they were in the evidence locker, Bird gathered he seemed rather confused at the realization.

As if he hadn't done anything deserving of that anger.

Blowing out a heavy breath, Jim reached up and tugged on the sides of his knit hat.

"It's not supposed to be like this." Bird finally spoke, "You on the run, right now. The plan was that you were supposed to leave Blackgate with everyone thinking you were dead. That was going to buy a lot of time to clear your name because who'd be looking for a dead man?"

"I couldn't leave Puck there." Jim explained, "He'd have been dead within days."

"He is dead, Jim." Bird harshly spoke, turning on the sidewalk to face him as he slowed to a stop.

"He was just a kid." Jim stepped forward with his voice low.

"He was a little older than a kid." Bird stated, "I'm sorry he's dead, but he was old enough to make his own decisions and he made a decision to help you on the inside -knowing the price. Just as I made the decision to help you, fully aware of the risks."

Pulling in a deep breath, she shook her head, "But the clock is ticking now. Barnes is probably a few figurative steps behind us and -and all we've got is a recording of a voice. Maybe not even the voice of the person we're looking for."

"Wow…" Jim breathed, his breath turning to white fog in the frigid air, "Are you?" He couldn't help but question, "Are you sorry that he's dead."

Bird's eyes narrowed and she started to turn to keep walking.  
The clock was also ticking on the hour time frame that Bullock had given them to slip the keys back under Ginny's door, but Jim stopped her.

"I helped Puck, because it was the right thing to do." He spoke with sincerity in his voice.  
As if there had been no other option but to return to the prison to get him out.

The anger on his face faded into one more of genuine concern with a touch of curiosity when he questioned, "Do you really not see that?"

Bird's anger had since ran its course as well.  
Suddenly feeling self-conscious of what her answer would be, her eyes diverted their gaze to the ground and she started to tun away again, but he wouldn't let her.

"You really don't, do you?" Jim pushed.

Looking down to where his hand was still on her arm, Bird gave a shrug.

In theory the whole right versus wrong and good versus evil might have held up and even looked good on paper or screen; but not in real life.

In real life it wasn't always so easy to tell the difference and even when it was clear to spot, being able to do the so called right thing, was hardly ever as simple as he was making it sound.

"You see good and bad…" Bird started to answer, "You just run headfirst at what you think is the right thing to do. I weigh the risks and if the price is too high, then what's the point?"

"The point is that it's right." Jim's eyebrows furrowed.

He was always so quick to anger with her when she made the wrong decisions.  
So quick to judge when she made a decision he didn't agree with.

Only now, the more he was around her, the more he was starting to see that it wasn't always a conscious decision on her part.  
And that even in the times it was, she followed what she thought was the right thing to do.

It was something he hadn't realized until the night he thought she'd been killed.  
Sitting there in the hospital waiting to hear if she made it off the operating table with his mind tormenting him in the many ways he let her down, he realized that even though he didn't agree with her methods -she'd stayed true to herself and what she believed in up to the very end.

"Yeah." Bird scoffed, "But where do you draw the line?"  
Her arms dropped to her sides and shoulders slouched, "How can it be the right thing to do if it comes at such a great personal cost?"

She knew they didn't have time to be arguing over this.  
Not to mention they were still close to the police station, but she was starting to feel like a science project on display, waiting to be judged.

"Great personal cost?" He repeated back, pausing to think of how he could get her to understand, "You almost died for Oswald. You were willing to die for him, that's a pretty great personal cost, Bird."

"He's important to me." She defended, "His life matters to me."

"More than your own?" He questioned.

"Yes." She answered without hesitation.

"Everyone has to matter." Jim repeated something he'd said to her well over a year ago.  
A sentiment that still seemed to elude her reasoning.

"But on different levels." Bird argued.

When Bird saw his expression twist into confusion and she gathered he already had an argument ready to go and she defended, "I really am sorry about Puck -and I'm not saying that his life didn't have meaning, of course it did. But; your life holds more value to me than his."

"It's like…" She sighed, "If someone was holding a gun to the head of someone you care about and one to the head of a stranger and you can only save one… it's not that you want the stranger to die, but given the choice you're going to choose life for the person you care about."

It didn't feel like too long ago that she'd given a similar analogy to her little brother, to try and get him to understand her way of viewing the world.  
Bruce had argued that there had to be a third solution; one in which nobody had to die.

But Jim had lived a lot longer and seen a lot more than her brother had and he knew that sometimes the outcome of problems were caked in blood and coated in the stench of death.

"See." Bird's head cocked to the side at his refusal to speak now, "You know I'm right."

"I didn't say you were right." He called out once she'd made it several steps away from him.

They walked for a while in silence.  
He felt like he could argue till he was blue in the face about right and wrong and it wouldn't make a difference to her; she'd never fully see his side.

He also thought that while Bird's answer might not have been the most socially acceptable one, she did have a point. Even if he didn't like to admit it.  
Just that most people wouldn't be so open and have no qualms about voicing it

Though, her at least admitting that human life in general holds value was a step up from the Bird he'd first met.

No matter how much time had passed since then and how close they'd gotten, he didn't think he'd ever get over the day she looked him in the eyes and told him that his life didn't mean much to her.

Only now that felt like several lifetimes ago.

Now, it felt as though they'd went from one versus the other -to them against the world.

" _Give me that!"_  
 _"Ooh, what's up sweetheart, how you doing?"_  
 _"Where you going?"_

A woman's terrified screams rang out in between then voices of the three men taunting her and trying to steal her purse.

Jim looked over his shoulder and slowed to a stop when he saw one of the muggers pull a knife on the woman.

"We have to get back to Bullock." Bird spoke low, as she grabbed onto Jim's arm and tried to pull him along with her, but he shrugged out of her grip.

"Seriously?" She complained when she saw the look of determination fill his eyes.

He always had to play the hero.

" _Somebody help!"_

Bird spun around and watched as Jim darted across the street to answer the woman's cry for help, while she desperately clutched onto her purse that one of the men was trying to take from her.

Cursing under her breath, Bird pulled the scarf around her neck up over her nose and mouth to try and help shield her identity before she raced to Jim's aid as he fought against the three muggers.

She got there right as the one brandishing a switchblade raised his arm in the air to try and take a swipe at Jim.

Bird caught his arm and bent it twisted it, turning the the blade away from Jim and forcing the man to stab himself in the side.

Falling to the ground with a cry of pain, he jerked the knife out of his side in a panic and dropped it to the cement.

Jim quickly picked up the knife before anyone else got the chance to.  
Pointing it at the robbers, he ordered, "Get out of here!"

The first two took off running, while the third struggled to get to his feet after being injured and scrambled after them, leaving a trail of blood behind him.

Jim eyed Bird to make sure she hadn't been injured before he looked over to the woman and questioned, "Ma'am, are you okay?"

Seeing the knife still clutched in his hand, the woman let out a shriek of terror and took off running in the opposite direction.

"You're welcome." Jim sighed, as he watched her run away in fear after he'd saved her life.

"It's the middle of the night." Bird reminded him, "And you're a man, holding a knife. Of course she ran away screaming."

"Hands up or I'll blow your heads off!"

Bird stared at Jim with a look of fire in her eyes, before she held her hands up and slowly stepped to the side and then around to face the officer who was pointing a gun at them.

"GCPD!" The cop yelled at them, "Drop the weapon."

Letting the knife fall from his hands, Jim took a step closer and once his face was illuminated in the streetlights, the cop gasped, "You're Jim Gordon…"

"Listen to me-" Jim started to say, hoping he might be able to reason with the uniformed officer, but instead he reached for his shoulder radio and immediately radioed in his location and saying he had Jim Gordon.

While the man had his gun lowered and was more focused on calling for back up, Jim seized the opportunity to dart forward and grab his gun before pushing him to the ground.

"Don't kill me!" The officer pleaded, reduced to a shaking blob where he'd landed on the ground.

"I'm innocent." Jim defended, emptying the gun of it's ammunition before dropping it to the ground and repeating, "I'm innocent, you hear me."

With that, both Jim and Bird took off running down an ally and didn't slow down until they'd reached Ginny's building.

Once the keys were slid back under the door with a little less than ten minutes to go before their hour was up, they both leaned against the wall in the stairwell to catch their breath.

"Hey." Bird huffed, pulling in a breath of air, "We made a pretty good team back there, right?"

"Yeah." Jim nodded, but she could see by the look in his eyes that something was bothering him.  
And she didn't have to wait long to find out what it was.

"You didn't have to hurt him that bad." Jim said, thinking of the trail of blood the third assailant had left behind him.

"He got stabbed with his own knife, Jim. The very knife he pulled on that woman and then tried to slice and dice you with." She defended.

"I could have disarmed him without…" His voice trailed off and he pulled his hat off before running a hand through his hair and adding, "You could have disarmed him without taking it that far."

"I don't see what the big deal is! So he got hurt? So what! He was out there to hurt someone himself. Now he'll probably have to go the hospital and they'll be on the lookout for someone injured who fled a crime scene. He'll be arrested and one less lowlife criminal on the streets, right?" She argued.

Growing angrier by the minute, that after all she'd done for him, he was apparently still going to complain and judge the way she handled situations, Bird's already red cheeks darkened.

"I'm never going to see the world, let alone this city through the same eyes that you do, Jim." Bird's voice strained from the amount of self-control she was exerting to keep her anger from spiraling out of control.

"I don't expect-" He started to say, but she was past done listening to him to talk.

"You do." Bird interrupted, "I have risked my well being yet again to help you and…"  
Her voice trailed off before the look changed in her eyes and her posture straightened as she asserted, "And I deserve better than that."

It was then that her phone started ringing from her pocket and she pulled it out to see Oswald was calling her again, it was probably the third call he'd made that day -but this was the first chance she'd gotten to answer.

Flipping the phone open to answer the call, she said, "Hey, hang on a minute, okay?"

With that she held her thumb over the microphone and shot Jim a disappointed look as she said, "Text me later and let me know what time we're meeting Bullock tomorrow."

She walked past him, purposelessly bumping her shoulder into him with enough force he stumbled before regaining his balance.

"Bird!" Jim called after her, but she didn't answer.  
She didn't even look back at him.

With an exasperated sigh he leaned against the wall again and dropped his head back against it with a thud.

She was apparently more angry with him over his failure to understand that she did what she felt was necessary, than she had been with the way Harvey Dent had treated her earlier that day.

•••

* * *

 **A/N - Yes, I'm updating on Christmas, because what else am I going to do with my life? Haha.  
**

 **I hope you all liked the chapter!  
Just when things start to go good between Bird and Jim, something always happens and sets them back. :P**

 **Thank you to everyone who as added this story to your favorites and/or followed for update alerts.  
I've been getting a few emails for that lately and it makes me really happy to know new readers are finding and enjoying Bird's story!**

 **I, of course, owe so much gratitude to: HerMajesty1010, Caroline, Shadow knight1121, Katniss789, Love. Fiction. 2017, SmellYourScentForMiles, chodofaggins, PetrovaLover, Nott01, DancingDorisDay, Munyue, Amelia,** **l0velylexx, Bim fan, xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, and to the Guests who reviewed since my last update!  
**

 **Thank you all so much and it's great to see how many Bim fans I've got out there. :)**

 **Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays!**

 **xx**


	26. 525,600

**XXVI**

 _"I'm gonna fight for you, until your heart stops beating." - Stephenie Meyer, Eclipse_

* * *

•••

"Morning." Jim greeted once Bird had pulled the car door shut after getting into the backseat of Bullock's car next to Jim.

"Hey." She greeted back, barely ever looking over at him when she pulled one of the cups of coffee from the drink carrier and handed it to him.

"Thank you." He said, taking a drink even though it was still a little too hot to go down comfortably.

He'd been waiting in Bullock's car for well over an hour for his partner and Bird to show up, but apparently both were running late that morning.

Looking back over to where she was sitting beside him, Jim tried to get a read on what kind of mood she was in that day.

They'd parted ways after getting into an argument the night before and he wasn't sure if she was still angry with him.

When he saw her take a drink of her iced coffee, he half-smiled when he said, "You know coffee is supposed to be hot, right?"

"Don't be so old fashioned, Jim." She replied without a missing beat, but the tone in voice sounded off to him.

It wasn't how she sounded when she mad and more than anything she sounded distant -possibly even a little sad.

"You okay?" He questioned, cringing his way through another drink of coffee. Trying desperately to warm himself up after sitting for so long in the cold.

"Yeah." She answered, not bothering to make eye contact or even look at him while she pulled the third coffee from the carrier and leaned between the front seats to set it in the cup holder for when Bullock got there.

"Bird?" He pushed, lowering his head some and trying to catch her line of sight once she was sat back down.

But she didn't answer him.

He wasn't even sure she was in the car to hear him.

Not that he got much time to try and get through to her when Bullock opened the car door and got in, immediately starting the car to run the heat and loudly complaining about how cold it was.

Picking up the coffee from the cup holder he took a drink before turning some in his seat to look at them both, "What the hell happened last night?"

When they both stared back at him with blank expressions, he clarified, "A uniform came into the station with a goose egg the size of Texas and babbling about how Jim Gordon and some masked girl tried to kill him."

"That is not what happened." Bird sighed.

"Stumbled onto a mugging." Jim explained, as he fished the envelope containing the tape from his pocket and handed it to Bullock, who'd lifted the correct kind of player from the station for them.

"And Jim Gordon couldn't just walk by." Bullock breathed, before glancing back and questioning, "Where'd you sleep?"

Despite Falcone having set him up a safe house in the city, most nights Jim ended up falling asleep at Bird's in the room they'd all three turned into the headquarters for trying to solve the mystery of who who framed him.

"I didn't." Jim admitted with a small sigh, "Just walked around."  
Shrugging it off he asked, "How's Barnes?"

"He's on the warpath. Governor announced a ten thousand dollar reward for anyone who helps catch you." Bullock announced while he reached over and picked up the bag of pastries Bird had gotten with their coffees.

"Ten thousand?" Jim chuckled, "Maybe you should turn me in."

"Hey, if he doubled it to twenty, I'd give it some thought." He laughed, before his face fell into a more serious expression and he successively managed to feed the tape from the small round disk into the player, "Alright, here we go."

" _I want to report a crime-"_

"You recognize that voice?" Bullock asked, quick to stop the tape.

"Sounds like it's been disguised." Jim admitted with a heavy heart.

Bird turned her head in an eerily slow manner to look at him.

This was exactly what she'd been afraid of. That they were going to hedge all their bets on this one piece of evidence and it end up being entirely useless.

"I know." He sighed, finally turning to face Bird after trying to ignore her heavy gaze on him.

" _I saw Detective James Gordon shooting Mayor Theo Galavan on the southside docks. The Penguin was beating him with a bat, but it was Gordon that pulled the trigger."_

The end of the recording played a strange garbled sound that somewhat sounded like an owl.

"The hell is that?" Bullock asked, "Was that a bird?"

"Play it back." Jim instructed.

But a second listen of the tape didn't make the recording any clearer.

"You're going to have to find someone to clean up the audio." Bird shrugged, seeming a little too despondent.

"She's right." Bullock nodded as he tucked the tape back into the envelope and handed it to his partner, "Listen, I gotta get going. Barnes is watching me like a hawk."

"Alright." Jim agreed, "Hey, you've done more than any partner could ask… from now on stay away from me. For your own sake; if Loeb was behind this you don't want to get mixed up in it."

"What are you doing to do?" Bullock asked.

"I still got a few friends I can ask for help." He reasoned.

"Hey." Bullock said catching Bird's attention, "You keep an eye on him, okay?"

"I can't." She blinked, avoiding both sets of eyes that fell on her when she admitted, "Not today. I have somewhere I need to be."

"What?" Bullock scoffed, "We're in the middle of the muck and now you're gonna get cold feet about helping-"

"I have a funeral to attend today, okay?" Bird snapped.

"Who died?" Bullock questioned, but Bird didn't give an answer as she got out of the car and ignored both of them when they called after her.

She'd nearly made it the end of the block before Jim finally caught up with her.

"Who's funeral is it?" He asked, his voice soft with understanding when he managed to bring her to a stop.

Turning to face him, she shrugged, "It doesn't matter."

"Obviously it does." Jim pushed, "You're clearly upset. You lost someone-"

"That's what gets me!" She exclaimed, tossing her arms out to the side and nearly popping the lid off her iced coffee, "I didn't lose anyone. I…" She shook her head, blinking back the tears stinging her eyes.

"I, uh… I barely even knew him, you know? I -I feel like I don't even have the right to be upset here. And I cried when I got the phone call, you know that?" She loudly admitted with unstable laugh, "I cried and it's so ridiculous because it's not even my loss to feel. I… I just…"

"Hey…" Jim breathed, with a comforting hand on her upper arm as he tried to get her to calm down and still her stammering, "Sometimes it doesn't matter how long you've known someone. You can feel a stronger connection to someone you've just met over someone you've known for years. Life's just funny that way."

"Who are you going to see about the tape?" Bird questioned, pushing the thoughts of where she was headed out of her mind.

"Don't worry about me. You've done more than enough to help me. I'll take it from here." He nodded as he spoke.

It was the truth, she'd done more than he even could have asked and just like he'd warned Bullock about keeping his distance, he didn't want Bird to wind up in danger because of her helping him either.

"Please don't." She sighed, rubbing her forehead, "Can you just wait until tomorrow when I'll be back in town?"

"Every minute that passes is another chance that I could be caught. I can't take a day off-"

"You can't trust anyone, Jim." Her forehead lined, "You're a good person and so you want to see the good in people, but you can't risk that right now. There's a ten thousand dollar bounty on your head."

"I know-" He began to say, but she cut him off.

"Do you? Because I've seen people do terrible things for a lot less money. You can't trust anyone." She restated her argument.

"I'll be fine." He promised, "And I'll call later if anything comes of the tape."

She stood in place as she watched him turn to leave.  
He'd only made it a few steps before he turned back and said, "And I'm sorry, for whoever it is that you lost."

•••

"Bird!" Oswald called out the moment he saw her as she stepped up onto the sidewalk outside of an old grand church.

"Oswald." Her face twisted in emotion as she rushed forward and wrapped her arms around him, "I'm so sorry about Elijah."

Nodding against her shoulder, his tears started to soak into the fabric of her black coat as he clutched onto her.

Stepping back she held onto his arms as she looked around them and asked, "Where's Grace?"

"She's already inside." He admitted, hanging his head as he sobbed, "Poor Grace. We were all there when he collapsed; she watched her husband die right in front of her eyes."

"Yeah…" Bird quietly said, "Poor Grace…"

"We should go inside-" He started to say when he grabbed onto her hand and started to pull her towards the doors, but she firmly planted her feet against the cement and said, "Wait."

When he turned back to face her, she asked, "I don't mean to be insensitive… but doesn't this all see so sudden? I mean he only died yesterday. Did they even have a time to do an autopsy?"

"Why would there an autopsy. He'd been sick for some time." Oswald clearly failed to see where she was trying to lead him.

"I know, but-"

Stepping forward and hugging her, Oswald said, "Sometimes bad things just happen, Bird. I wish you'd gotten to see him one last time, but you're here now. He'd be happy to know that."

Biting down on the side of her tongue, Bird slowly nodded and manged a smile when he finally stepped back.

There was so much she wanted to say.  
Wanted to voice her suspicions aloud that Grace and or her children might have done something to result in Elijah's death.

But now wasn't the time.  
For now she needed to be there for her friend. Let him lean on her in his mourning.

"Let's get inside." She managed to say as she grabbed onto his hand and gave it a squeeze.

Once the were inside the historic church, Bird let Oswald lead her up to the front pew on the left side of the isle, while Grace and company were on the right.

The rest of the church was nearly empty, aside from a few scattered people who looked to have been about Elijah's age, but Bird didn't know any of them.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Oswald stammered out with his voice thick with emotion and still holding onto her hand as they sat together, "The -the casket. Grace let me choose it and the flowers… I think he… I think he would have liked them."

Blinking rapidly, Bird finally turned her head to look at the shiny wood coffin that was now Elijah Van Dahl's final resting place.

Her eyes drifted over to where there was a picture of him on display and finally up to the large display on flowers draped over the wood.

"Lilies." Bird's voice cracked with a sad smile spreading over her lips.  
They were Gertrud's favorite.

"Oswald." She cleared her throat trying to make her voice stronger, but it wasn't helping much, "I'm so sorry."

"Thank you for coming." He hoarsely said, his voice trailing off and growing quiet when he spotted the priest making his way up to the podium to deliver the funeral service.

Bird nodded, giving his hand a small squeeze but she couldn't look over at him.

Her throat felt tight and swollen, like even if she had something to say, it would be impossible to squeeze the words out.

Eyes burned like someone was holding a lit match to them and she knew if she looked over and saw the tears on her best friend's face that she'd start crying all over again and it was nothing short of a miracle that she'd managed to stop after the phone call informing her of the older man's passing.

Pulling in a deep breath, she clung to the air. Pinning the oxygen deep within her lungs until she fixed her sight on one of the stained glass windows behind where the priest was standing.

Slowly, she exhaled, determined to not look away from the spot she'd chosen.

Time felt like it ticked by at a snails pace, though she was barely even aware of what was being said.  
The only sound she was aware of aside from the thudding of her own heart was Oswald's audible sobbing as his body trembled next to her.

Once the priest had said his peace and passed down the isle gently swinging the incense burner from it's chain as he went and letting the smoke hang in the air behind him; Oswald stood up and the pull on Bird's arm finally brought her back to the present, she stood up next to him.

Though she was hesitant to move her feet when he started to walk up to where the closed casket was displayed.

Bird's breath caught in her throat and when she finally started to follow Oswald, she realized just weak her legs felt beneath her. As if they could give out at any moment.

"Would…" Oswald had to stop to wipe his noise and get a breath, "Would you say a few words, Bird? Please?"

"W-what?" She stammered out. Brown irises darting around in the red tint her eyes had sense taken on.

"It would mean so much." Oswald pleaded.

Slowly, Bird let go of his hand and turned around to face the rest of the church.

There seemed to be a few less bodies in the pews than she remembered.  
And suddenly she found herself wondering about each and every person sitting in that church with them.

If they'd personally known Elijah and what sort of impact he might have had on their lives -no matter how brief.

She wondered why on earth anyone would be there who hadn't known him, but then she was caught off guard as she remembered a boy she was friends with her freshman year of high school, who, for whatever reason, seemed to get a kick out of showing up to funerals for people he'd never known.

That never made sense to her.  
She hated attending funerals for people she knew.

"Bird?" Oswald gave her side a gentle nudge as he wondered where her mind had drifted to.

"I, uh…" She breathed, scanning the faces who were all focused on her, "I was asked by Elijah's son, to say a few words."

Oswald nodded, standing sideways to watch her.  
His father deserved to have people remember him; to say something beautiful about the sort of person he was. Only, he wasn't sure he could get the words out himself.

Pulling in another breath and clearly struggling to find where to begin, Bird's forehead lined and her gaze fell to the floor.

"I didn't know Elijah Van Dahl for very long before…" Her voice trailed off and she glanced back at the casket, "In fact, when I first heard news of his passing, I remember breaking down into tears and not fully understanding why. But I guess… I guess life is funny that way, right?" Bird shook her head as she thought of what Jim had said to her early that morning.

"I guess it doesn't really matter how long you know someone. What's important isn't in the amount of times; it's in the moments you were lucky enough to share. Those moments when you're able to connect with someone else on a level that you can't quite explain. Moments that change your life-" Bird cleared her throat and swatted away the tears leaving lines down her cheeks.

"That was all it took for me was a moment, just meeting Elijah for the first time for him to feel like family. He was a great man. Warm and kind and understanding and he…" Bird ran her tongue of her lips, tasting the salt from her own tears when she turned to face her best friend, "And he loved you, Oswald. I'm so sorry that you didn't get longer with him. It's not right… it's not fair."

Stepping forward she wrapped her arms around him as his cries grew in intensity and volume.  
"You should have gotten much more time to have those moments with him. Years and years to make memories and get know him." Her voice was so muffled from Oswald's shoulder and strained through her own tears that the only one who even even understand her was Oswald.

"What is wrong with them?" Sasha lowly said as she leaned over across her brother and looked to her mother for an answer.

Grace gave a shrug with a nearly stunned expression on her own face.  
She had no idea.

She'd read newspaper article after article about how vicious and violent they both were. Having been reduced to nothing more than tales of blood thirsty criminals -and yet here they stood, brought to tears over Elijah's death when neither of them had even been in his life for long.

"God…" Grace sighed, sliding down in her seat some, "How much longer is this going to take?"

"I think she's done." Charles commented, not taking his eyes off Bird when she finally stepped back from Oswald and turned to walk away from the casket.

"Let's go-" Sasha agreed starting to stand up, but had to plop back down when Oswald turned to the wooden box containing his father's body and started up on a speech of his own.

"Father, I only knew you a short time, but you came to me when I was alone in this cold dark world. You gave me a family… I will never forget you. As long as I live."  
His words broke into pained cries that seemed to erupt from his very core.

Bird hung her head and ran her fingers through her hair, trying to block out the sounds, but she couldn't.

When it started to feel like the air inside of the church was too thick, Bird stood up and quickly rushed down the isle and out of the doors.  
Though the ice cold air she was met with did little to soothe her aching lungs.

Walking over to the side she leaned against the cold stone of the building and fished her phone out of her small handbag.

Her eyebrows lowered when she saw she had missed calls from both Bruce and Alfred and even a missed call from one of the numbers she had saved under Selina's name.

Selecting her brother's number, she called him back but didn't get an answer.

With her heart starting to race, she tried Alfred's number and then Selina's but neither of them were answering the phone either.

"There you are." Oswald called out, holding his coat closed as he walked over to where Bird was standing.

Her eyes darted up to him and then over to the doors where they were bringing the casket out to be loaded into the back of the hearse.

"Are you coming with us to the cemetery?" He sniffled.

"Yeah, I just need to get a hold of my brother first." She sounded frantic as she put her phone back up to her ear, hoping her calls would be answered.

Something had to have happened for all three of them to call her.

When her call went unanswered yet again. She blew out a sigh with her breathing turning to white fog in the late evening air.

"Is something wrong?" Oswald asked.

"I hope not." Was the only answer she could give.

Focusing her attention back on him, she asked, "Where are you going to go from here? You should come back to the city with me."

"I'm going to stay here." He declined.

"Why?" Bird couldn't help but ask.

"My father would have wanted our family to stay together. He told me and Grace will need help around the house and…" He breathed, still clutching onto a section of the lilies from the display, he stammered, "This is where I need to be."

"Grace isn't your family." Bird bluntly stated, "Neither is Sasha or Charles."

"What a cruel thing to say." Oswald took a step back away from her with a shocked look on his face.

"I'm sorry, but it's the truth. I don't like them, Oswald. I don't trust them and it worries me that you're going to be living with them, without Elijah. Please, just come back to the city with me, okay? We can find a lawyer and-" Bird started to explain her reasoning, but it only served to confuse Oswald further.

"Why would I need a lawyer?" He questioned.

"So you can get what's rightfully yours." Bird's eyebrows lowered, "You told me Elijah was going to be changing his will, to include you in it."

"Yes, but he didn't have the time-"

"Which is exactly why we're going to need a lawyer."

"No." Oswald shook his head back and forth, "I'm not doing that to Grace. After the cemetery, we're all going back to the house together and we'll live as a family, just like my father wanted."

"There's no changing your mind is there?" Bird sighed.

When Oswald shook his head, Bird knew she didn't have a choice in the matter.  
He was doing what he felt was right and she couldn't talk him out of it.

"Okay, but if something starts to feel off, or anything happens. Anything at all, you call me and I'll be there as fast as I can. I know you believe them to be your family, but I don't trust them." She sternly said, before linking her arm with his and leading him over to where her driver was parked as she said they'd ride to the cemetery together.

•••

"Hey." Bruce greeted as he walked into the kitchen of Wayne Manor to find his sister had started a pot of coffee.

"Morning, little brother." Bird greeted back in a slightly raspy voice.

"Is Detective Gordon still sleeping?" He questioned.

It now been several hours since Jim had found his way to the building Selina had been living in -badly injured and bleeding heavily from a gunshot wound to the leg.

He'd barely been able to say anything before he'd collapsed on the floor right in front of Bruce and Selina.

That was the reason everyone was trying to get a hold of Bird the prior night.

"Yeah. He needs the rest." Bird nodded before turning around and saying, "Thank you -for not calling 911. I know that was probably your first instinct."

"It was smart calling Alfred." She added.

"I tried to call you first." Bruce explained, "Before he collapsed, he was trying to tell me something. I couldn't understand everything that he said, but he said something about needing to find you."

Bird gave a small shrug in response.  
She was sure that had something to do with whoever had shot him; but until he woke up they wouldn't have the answer to that question.

Bruce watched his sister as she crossed the kitchen and retrieved a coffee mug from a cabinet before sitting down at the kitchen island and rubbing her forehead in an attempt to relieve the massive headache thundering away behind her eyes.

The night before, after being able to get to his phone and see she'd tried to return his calls, Bruce called her and the only thing she'd tell him is that she was headed back into the city after a funeral.

Bruce had told her about Jim's condition and sounded rather proud of how he'd stitched the detective up himself before Alfred had gotten there and brought them all back to Wayne Manor.

After she'd gotten to the house, Bird sat down in a chair in the study where Jim was sleeping on the couch and hadn't moved until now.

"You aided in his escape from Blackgate?" Bruce guessed, but it sounded more like a statement.

"Yep." Bird sighed.

Just like his sister had done, Bruce got a mug from the cabinet and sat down with her as they waited for the coffee to finish brewing.

He'd been outraged when he'd caught a glimpse of the news coverage over Jim's trial and learned his friend had been convicted.  
Bruce had wanted to do something to help him, but he wasn't sure what that would even be.

The idea of a prison break had never crossed his mind.  
That certainly wouldn't have been a solution he'd thought of, but it didn't surprise him that -that was his sisters go-to plan.

"The doctor I called to come and look at him said you did a hell of a job of stitching him up." Bird beamed a proud smile in his direction.

Looking down to hide his own smile, Bruce modestly agreed, "I just did it the way you and Alfred taught me."

"Well you did good." She reinforced, "It's honestly a miracle he made it to Selina's and that he didn't bleed out on the street."

Standing up to fix herself a cup of coffee, she muttered to herself about how all she'd asked from him was just to wait until the next day so she could go with him and this entire thing could have been avoided.

"Good morning to you both." Alfred loudly said as he walked into the kitchen and immediately retrieved his apron from it's hook to begin on breakfast.

There was quite a bit of cooking to be done that morning. Not only were both Bird and Bruce there, but Selina was wandering about the house somewhere and he looked for Jim to be waking up at any moment.

Shooting his sister a look when she returned the pot of coffee to the machine instead of handing it off to him, or filling his cup too, Bruce looked over and said, "Thank you for coming when I called, Alfred."

"Of course I came." Alfred watched the youngest Wayne pour his coffee before adding, "No questions asked."

"And after all, Lady Wayne has landed herself in the quite the mess with this whole thing." He added, "So, we might as well get neck deep it in it ourselves. Harboring a fugitive and all."

Bruce laughed against the edge of his cup and Bird rolled her eyes as she retrieved the pitcher of orange juice from the refrigerator.

"Hand me eggs, would you?" Alfred said and as Bird did what she'd been asked, he turned to Bruce and commented, "You're looking thin."

Slowly setting his mug down on the counter, he promised, "I'm getting plenty to eat, Alfred."

"Sure you are." Bird commented, reaching out to ruffle his hair as she sarcastically said, "And plenty of hot showers as well?"

With her nose wrinkled, Bird quickly walked over to the sink to wash the oils from his hair off her hand and commented, "You should really shower while you're here."

Nodding in agreement, he reached up to smooth his hair back down and then wiped his hand on his clothes that needed washed just as badly as his body did.

"Baby powder." Bird spoke up.

When she looked over her shoulder to see he looked confused, "Pretty much does the same thing as dry shampoo when you're in a pinch."  
She said, before explaining how he'd need to use it to help dry up the grease on his scalp without leaving a white residue behind.

Alfred couldn't help but smile to himself as he listened to them.

It was nice hearing voices in the house again, feeling some life come back into the place.

He'd always keep it this way if he could; keep them both there with him.  
But Bird had gotten her own place and Bruce had already made it clear that he was leaving again with Selina.

"Master Bruce." Alfred drew his attention, "There are things we must discuss."

"I'm not coming back." He was quick to argue.

"No, I understand that, but-"

"Not yet."

Their argument was interrupted when Jim limped into the kitchen and greeted them all, "Good morning."

"Detective Gordon… should you be up?" Bruce questioned with concern flooded across his face.

"Probably not." Bird commented, "But then again he shouldn't have been chasing down leads by himself either."

"I'm fine." He sighed, trying to straighten his posture despite the amount of pain he was currently in as his gaze went past Bruce and over to where Bird was standing with a guilty expression on his face.

Bird had been right in her warning they'd parted with the prior day. She'd told him not to trust anyone and going against what she'd cautioned had landed him running for his life from someone he'd considered a friend.

"You stitched me up?" He questioned, looking over to Alfred.  
The last thing he remembered was stumbling to the last known place Selina had been living and finding Bruce there.

From there he didn't remember anything, but he'd guessed Bruce must have called on Alfred for help.

"Actually…" Alfred breathed, wiping his hands on a towel, "That was Master Bruce. He called me from Selina Kyle's after you passed out. So I thought I'd bring you here. Safest place for you."

When the room fell into an almost uncomfortable silence, Alfred asked Bruce to go and fetch Jim's clothes from the laundry room. After getting him back to the house, Alfred had taken his bloody clothes and dressed him in a clean robe in the meantime.

"Take a seat. I'm making some breakfast. Want some coffee?" Alfred spoke so fast it took Jim's hazy mind a while to process what he'd been asked.

"Yes, please." He nodded, as he gingerly sat down at the table with a pained grimace on his face.

He nodded in thanks when the butler sat a cup down in front of him and then filled it with the fresh pot of coffee.

Crossing the room, Bird stood across the table from him as she sat down two prescription bottles with hand written labels.

"Take one of these for pain. The doctor said about every six hours as needed." Bird instructed pointing to one the bottles and then scooting the other one closer she continued, "And this is an antibiotic. Twice daily with food, okay? To ward off any infection."

With a stunned look Jim repeated back, "Doctor? What doctor?"

"Oh, you know. One of those off the book types that charges an arm and leg for the risks involved." Alfred chimed in.

Picking up the bottle of antibiotics, Jim's brows furrowed. He didn't even remember a doctor being there.  
He must have really been out.

Sitting down across from Jim, Bird drank down more of her coffee while she stared at him expectantly.  
Both waiting to know who'd tried to kill him and for some sort of admission that she'd been right and he was wrong.

"So, how long has Bruce been living with Selina?" Jim asked, diverting his gaze away from Bird and over to where Alfred was adding some thick cut bacon to a skillet on the stove.

"Ever since the Matches Malone debacle." Alfred answered without looking over his shoulder, "Tuns out staring into the cold dead eyes of the man who kill your parents, doesn't bring the right amount of closure."

"Bruce never should have been in that room." Jim sighed, head hung in defeat, "I should have gotten to Malone first."

"Yes, you should've." Alfred agreed, "But you didn't did you?"  
From the beginning he'd been vocal about his disappointment in the detective for not actually solving the murders.

Then, of course, when it felt like Jim had pushed the Wayne Murders to the back burner, Bruce had delved even deeper into obsession.

A portion of the blame in which fell upon all their shoulders for not handling the situation better than they had.

Jim stopped with his cup midway in the air on his way to take a drink at the remark.

Seeing he'd been caught off guard, Alfred went started cracking eggs open to whisk for scramble and said, "You can't unbreak an egg. As my dear old mother used to say." With another egg cracked and shell tossed in the bin, he continued, "So, why don't we leave that situation alone and let's discuss yours."

"It's a long story." Jim sighed, forcing every last ounce of air from his lungs.

"Right, so you were framed for murder of that other policeman. Then with Lady Wayne's help you escaped from prison and tracked down the man who framed you -where you're promptly shot in the leg." Alfred broke down what had originally felt like a never ending story in a few sentences.

"Okay, maybe not that long of a story." Jim conceded.

"Who was it?" Bird broke in, not able to hold her silence for a second longer.

"Nygma." Jim answered, still seeming to hardly believe the revelation himself. "I went to him to see if he could clean up the audio off that I.A. tape." With a shake of the head he added, "I never thought it would be him."

"Really?" Bird's eyebrows raised, "You know he's not the most sane person, right?"

When Jim looked at her with an expectant expression, she seemed a million miles away before she gasped, "Oh my god, but it makes perfect sense now!"

"How?" Jim argued, "How do you figure that?"

"We were looking at it all wrong. We thought this was about you. That someone had framed you because they hated you when really it didn't have anything to do with you." Bird explained, "His own paranoia caught up with him and you just happened to be person caught in the middle of it."

"Let me guess…" Bird furthered, "At some point before all of this went to hell, you were probably asking him about Miss Kringle or Tom Dougherty?"

Jim nodded before abruptly stopping and asking, "What do you know about either of them? Nygma said that Kristen had run off with Dougherty…"

"Ha!" Bird exclaimed, "Pretty impossible considering the last time I saw Officer Dougherty -he was in pieces." After a drink of her coffee she added, "Literally."

"Good god, Lady Wayne." Alfred stopped frying up the scrambled eggs and turned to look at her.

With eyes as wide as saucers, Bird slowly turned her head and looked between Alfred and Jim who were both staring at her with horrified expressions.

"I didn't kill him." She was fast to defend.

"Just bloody helped hack him to bits, eh?" Alfred couldn't hold his tongue.

Although, that was indeed the truth, Bird shook her head, "I didn't say that."

"Your burning the eggs." She added, avoiding his eyes as she stirred up her coffee and took another drink.

"How long have you known?" Jim questioned, his eyes meeting Bird's from across the table, "You once told me you and Nygma were friends-"

"About Miss Kringle -not long." Bird admitted, before tossing out, "And friends can be a rather loose term, okay? He's a different person now."

Jim opened his mouth to push for more information, but Alfred cleared his throat upon seeing Bruce and Selina enter the room.

"Breakfast is almost ready." Alfred smiled at them.

"Cool." Selina said before she hopped up and sat on the table next to where Bird was sitting -instead of taking the empty chair there.

Bruce took a seat next to Jim and once everyone had plates of food, Jim filled all of them in on what had happened when he'd gone to Edward Nygma for help.

Alfred stood, leaned against the counter as he listened and watched Bruce finish all the contents of his plate with such speed he doubted he could taste any of it.

"Nygma was right about one thing." Jim said with a bite of bacon in his mouth, "I can't just go to the cops. They'll never believe me. I need hard proof."

"Cops, right?" Selina scoffed as she stabbed a bite of scrambled eggs off of Bird's plate with her own fork and ate it. Eyeing Jim's plate she quickly snatched up a piece of bacon and complained, "Jerks."

Jim and Bird both look down to their plates and then over to Selina who happily munched unaware on the crispy bacon before chasing the stolen food down with a drink of cold milk.

"Nygma said that he met Oswald for the first time in the woods. After Bird was shot." Jim said before he glanced over at her and then down to his coffee, "That's around the time his girlfriend went missing. I think he was burying her."

Jim's gaze traveled around the room before it fixed on Bird and he added, "Just like he was going to bury me."

"No." Bird curtly answered as she got to work on splitting the food on her plate in half.

Everyone watched her as she scrapped one half onto her bother's empty plate and then handed the rest of her plate off to Selina who gladly took it.

"No, what?" Bruce questioned, finishing off the last of his coffee.

"I'm not involving Oswald." Bird announced to the room.

Standing up, she walked over and started to pour a glass of orange juice.

"I'll do anything to help you, Jim." She spoke with her back him, "Anything except for that."

"If they crossed paths in the area he buried the poor girl, then that would be easiest way to find her body." Alfred chimed in.

Turning back around with two glasses of orange juice in her hands, Bird asserted, "We'll have to find another way."

"Drink this." She instructed to Bruce as she sat one of the glasses down and stated, "It's better for you than that coffee you've been guzzling."

Setting the other glass in front of Jim, she plucked up the bottle of antibiotics and and got one of the pills out before she held it out and said, "Take your medicine."

After eyeing her for a minute, Jim breathed, "Yes, ma'am." As he held out his hand for the medicine."

Bruce looked between his sister and the detective with a small smile, before he took a drink of the juice he'd been instructed to drink and asked, "Then what do we do?"

"Sometimes…" Bird breathed, "Sometimes, little brother, you have to let people be their own downfall."

"So we're just supposed to sit around and wait?" Selina asked, before shoving the last bite of eggs off the plate and into her mouth.

"No…" Jim said, his eyes narrowing slightly in thought as he picked up on what Bird was saying.

"Nygma knows where Kristen is buried. He can lead me to the body…" Pulling in a breath he added, "But I'll need some help."

"Of course." Bruce nodded, "Whatever we can do."

"Thanks, but I need someone Barnes knows will betray me." Jim said as he turned his head and looked over at Selina, "Someone willing to turn me in for that ten grand reward."

"I don't get it." Selina shrugged before chugging down the last of her milk.

"You're going to have to go to the police station-" Bird started to say.

"And do what?" Selina cut in.

"Tell the truth." Jim explained, "Mostly. Say I showed up at your place -shot and bleeding. That I left and you don't know where I went, but I said I was going to find out where Penguin was hiding, because he knows where the body is buried."

"You have to make sure Nygma is within ear shot of you saying that." Bird agreed, "Then it's pretty much a matter of waiting on him to self-destruct. His paranoia will take over again he'll slip up. He'll have to go move the body to keep from getting caught."

"How do you know this Nygma character won't just skip town?" Alfred entered his two cents and Bruce nodded in agreement.

"He won't." Bird and Jim both answered in unison.

"But how can you be so sure?" Bruce pushed.

"Because Ed thinks he's always the smartest guy in the room." Bird reasoned, "Most times he probably is, but it's that arrogance that says he'll think he can still outsmart everyone else. That he'll move the body and things will go back to the way they were."

"Well then." Alfred clapped his hands together, "Then what? We follow him into the woods?"

"No." Jim argued, "Just me. I'll follow him and then GCPD will show up. They have to see this. Barnes has to hear what Nygma's done, straight from him."

"The minute they see you -they're gonna lock you up." Selina hastily pointed out.

"That's why I'll be the one to go to Barnes." Bird offered, "He'll listen to me. He already suspects I had something to do with Blackgate."

"No." Jim shook his head, "You've already done more than I could have ever asked-"

"I'm not asking for your permission, Jim." Bird cut him off, before stating, "It has to be me."

Bruce went to take a shower and get himself some clean clothes, while Selina had snagged an apple from the fruit bowl and went to watch T.V. until they were leaving. Once Bird left the room to gather her bag and get ready to leave, Jim and Alfred were left alone.

"Well, Detective Gordon." Alfred commented as he started to clean up the mess from breakfast preparation, "If all goes well, then you should have your badge back by the end of the day. If all fails, then I suppose your Captain Barnes will arrest Lady Wayne."

"I won't let that happen." Jim promised.

"Hmm." Alfred hummed in a disbelieving tone as he walked over to open a cabinet and put the nonstick cooking spray away.

As Jim got to his feet and slowly walked over to the island stool where Bruce had placed his folded up bundle of clean clothes. Jim's line of sight fell on three identical soap dispensers lining the edge of the sink.

Stepping over he started to pick on up as he asked, "Got enough soap?"

"I wouldn't touch that." Alfred was quick to say, "Move it even in the slightest and she'll know."

Jim glanced around the kitchen and realized it looked much more crowded than the last time he'd been in there.

Random items were in rows of three and the top of the refrigerator was absolutely over filled with cereal boxes.

The first couple times he'd been in Bird's old apartment, he'd noticed items in sets of threes and her kitchen had been so overstuffed with food there wasn't any counter space.

Later, when he'd been back the place looked completely different and he hadn't given much thought to it until now.

"Right." Alfred cleared his throat when he saw Jim eyeing the cereal collection, "I'm still trying to get the place back in order from when Lady Wayne was staying here recently."

With a slow nod, Jim waited on a better explanation, perhaps even one which would explain Bird's reasoning behind her doing those things.

But instead of that, Alfred let out a heavy sigh and said, "I'd keep her right here with me, if I could, you know? But she's all grown now and truth be told she stopped listening to me years ago."

"We're all wounded in our own ways. Some more than others -she does the best she can." Alfred continued as he raised his head and with a knowing look added, "She's not always the easiest to love. In fact, more often than not she makes it damn neared impossible."

"But she is worth it." Alfred added with a sad smile and a gleam in his eye, "She's absolute in everything she does; from her difficulties and flaws… to her unwavering devotion to the few lucky ones in which she holds dear. Do you understand, Detective Gordon?"

"I-" Jim started to say with his brows knotted in near confusion.

"That she deserves absolutely nothing less than that same devotion from the people around her, yeah?" Alfred cut him off.

"I get it…" Jim nodded, "At least, I think I do."

"Good." Alfred curtly said with a nod before nodding to the clothes in Jim's arms and saying, "Best get dressed then."

The butler stood in place and watched as Jim, lingered in the doorway as if he had something to say or another question to ask, but instead he silently walked away.

Letting out a sigh, Alfred rested his palms flat against the counter and lowered his head.

He could clearly see the closeness that had developed between Jim and Bird. In truth, he'd known for quite some time and while he liked the detective well enough, it didn't stop him from worrying about her.

If someone meant enough to her, Bird would give and give until there was nothing left of herself.  
He saw it time and time again with Oswald and caught glimpses of it in her relationship with Harvey Dent.

For whatever reason, Bird didn't do many things like the average person -including the way in which she formed bonds and built relationships.  
It was always an all in sort of deal for her.

All or nothing and time again he'd seen Bird come out on the nothing end of the equation.

•••

"Bullock!" Barnes yelled as he thundered down the steps from his office when he saw the Detective had a hand on Bird's arm and was trying to lead her back out of the precinct doors she'd just entered through.

This was the second time today he'd seen this happen.

The first time was just earlier that day when Selina Kyle had came in claiming to have information on Jim Gordon's whereabouts and Bullock tried to intervene and get her to leave before she could speak to anyone.

"Captain!" Bullock bolstered as he quickly let go of her and turned to face him.

"Miss Wayne." Barnes greeted, ignoring his detective, "Is there a problem?"

"I need to talk to you." Bird stated, "It's about James Gordon."

"Whoa! Hey, hey, hey." Bullock laughed like she'd told a joke, "Let's just think this through for a moment, aright?"

He wasn't sure what was going on. The last he'd seen or heard from either of them was early morning the day before.  
Since then Selina had came into station claiming Jim had been shot and now here was Bird, who he didn't know what to expect from.

"Let's talk in my office." Barnes agreed as he stood to the side and held out his arm to motion that he'd follow her.

"I don't have time to explain." Bird whispered to Bullock, "You're just going to have to trust me."

With that she breezed past him and headed up the stairs.

"Bullock!" Barnes complained when the detective followed them both right into the office like he had every right in the world to be there.

"It's okay. He can stay." Bird quickly said and nodded to Bullock as he shut the door so no one else could eavesdrop on the conservation.

"What information do you have on Gordon?" Barnes wasted no time.

"I can give you his location." Bird promised, "But only if you promise to hear me out first."

"Go on…" Barnes let every ounce of skepticism show on his face.

"Jim didn't kill Pinkney." Bird explained, "Edward Nygma did and he framed him for the crime. He set the entire thing up."

"Uh-huh…" Barnes sat down in the chair behind his desk, "And why exactly would Nygma do this?"

"Because he killed Kristen Kringle." Bird said, glancing over her shoulder when she could hear Bullock mumbling something, "Jim is good at what he does, okay? A little too good. He's a dog with a bone that can't let anything go until it's solved and Nygma must have gotten it in his head that Jim was onto him."

"Miss Wayne-" Barnes sighed.  
He wasn't even sure he could be angry with her for lying at this point.

Over all, he was at an utter loss as to why on earth she felt the need to come in and toy with GCPD like this.

"Don't you Miss Wayne, me." She shushed him, "The last time I stood in this office and tried to tell you the truth about what was going on, you acted like I was crazy and I was right about Galavan the entire time."

"She's right, cap." Bullock stepped forward in her defense, "We should have listened to her then, but we screwed up, we didn't and she paid the price for our mistakes."

"The last time I saw Jim he said he said he was going to a friend for help-" Bullock unintentionally told on himself, and Barnes didn't miss the slip-up.

"You told me you weren't helping him!" Barnes yelled, his eyes then darting back and forth between them before his eyes landed on Bullock and he realized, "You went to her for help, didn't you? The Blackgate escape…"

"I did what I had to." Bullock defended with fire in his eyes.

"What other choice did he have?" Bird shook her head, "He went to you, tried to tell you that Jim was innocent and you didn't listen. You're bound by your laws and your morals -I'm not. I'm exactly the person he needed help from."

"What exactly are you confessing to?" Barnes questioned.

"Only that I know where Jim is right now." Bird coyly replied, "He's following Nygma to the location where he buried Miss Kringle's body."

Taking a small electronic device from her pocket, she offered it up and said, "You better organize your team fast, Captain Barnes. Nygma's already tried to kill him once."

Barnes looked down the GPS tracker she'd handed him and watched as a small red dot moved across the map on the screen.

"If you're lying-" He pointed a finger at her and shook it, "If you're sending me on some wild goose chase-"

"I'm not." Bird cut in.

"We gotta get to Jim before it's too late." Bullock urged his captain.  
Who gave one last look at Bird, before rushing out of his office and calling for the strike-force to assemble.

•••

* * *

 **A/N -Thank you all for reading! So it's officially 2018 you guys!  
2017 feels like it went so fast and so slow all at once.  
I'm not sure about you all, but I had a really rough and trying year, so 2017 is definitely a year I'm ready to leave behind.  
**

 **I hope the new year will be kind us all.**

 **I'd like to give a special shout-out and thanks to: Shadow knight1121, xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, PetrovaLover, Love. Fiction. 2017, Rasiel Hasu, SmellYourScentForMiles, IAmZeeChloe, Munyue, NtheZ0ne, DancingDorisDay, Katniss789 and the Guests who have reviewed since my last chapter.**

 **The feedback I get on this story is the best thing ever and truly lifts me up and encourages me to write and continue updating.  
I see and read every single review I get and just want you all to know how much it means to me!**


	27. Meat

**XXVII**

 _"My heart might be bruised, but it will recover and become capable of seeing beauty of life once more. It's happened before, it will happen again, I'm sure. When someone leaves, it's because someone else is about to arrive-I'll find love again." ― Paulo Coelho, The Zahir_

* * *

•••

"Detective." Bird greeted with a smile as the cold evening air blew strands of hair over her face while she stood leaned against her car outside of the precinct, "How does it feel to have your badge back?"

"Wouldn't know." Jim said coming to a stop in front of her as he tucked his hands in pockets to try and shield his skin from the cold.

"What?" Bird's smile fell and her expression animated in anger, "Barnes knows you were set up! He knows that-"

"It was my choice." Jim interrupted, "I told him I wasn't ready to come back -not yet."

Bird eyed him suspiciously.

All he'd talked about for weeks on end was how he needed to clear his name and get his job back.

Barnes and the strike-force had shown up in time to hear Nygma's full confession and they'd arrested him.

He was probably on the bus headed to Arkham right about now and Jim's name had been cleared.

The morning papers were sure to all be bearing the headline and story of how he'd been innocent the entire time.

"I don't understand." She finally sighed, shoulders slouching with the admission, "Getting your job back seemed so important to you."

"It is important to me." He was quick to assert, "But there's some things I need to take care of first."

"Mhm…" Bird hummed with her eyes squinted at him, clearly waiting for a better explanation, but for the moment that was all he was going to give her.

"At least you can go back to your own apartment now." She finally chimed in to break the silence between them.

"Yeah." Jim breathlessly laughed as he rubbed a hand over the back of his head, "Silver lining."

The sad part was that the safe house Falcone had set up for him was nicer than his place.

But it would be nice to be able to walk around the city without the fear of being recognized.

Living under the constant stress he'd been in since the night he'd escaped from Blackgate had become a way of life for him.

Out of habit and paranoia, he was sure he'd still be ducking his head down in crowds and checking around corners.

"Need a ride?" She offered, nodding to the car behind her where her driver had the car idling with the heat on for when she was ready to get out of the cold.

"Thanks, but I've got some things I need to finish up here first." He declined.

While he'd ran outside to tell her bye, Barnes was pulling the Wayne murder case files for him.

He wasn't ready to tell Bird about that yet, but that was the reason he'd turned down Barnes' offer of immediate reinstatement.

It had been nearly two years ago that he'd made a promise to Bruce and Bird that he'd find the man who killed their parents.

A promise he'd broken, albeit unintentionally, but he'd let them down and they'd found Matches Malone on their own -then Bird killed him.

But that wasn't enough, knowing who pulled the trigger was just the very beginning.  
He needed to find out who'd hired Matches in the first place and that's exactly what he intended to do -without the limits carrying a badge held him to.

"Okay then…" She sighed.

She didn't care for his being secretive, especially after all she'd risked to help him in the last months, but she was a little too tired to push for more details right now.

She'd barely gotten any sleep that week and Elijah's funeral had drained her more than she'd ever expected. Then with everything else that had been going on, she felt like she'd barely paused long enough to breath, let alone get any rest.

•••

Bird audibly groaned to herself as she made her way down the stairs in her townhouse, tying her robe closed that matched the print of the nightie underneath it.

Her bare feet padded across the wood floor as she made her way to the front door and raised up to see through the peephole.

"Oh my god…" She complained, dropping her head forward until it collided with the door.

"I can hear you."  
Announced the familiar voice from the other side.

Undoing the locks, Bird opened the door and in a tired raspy voice greeted, "Barbara?"

"Hey, B." She smiled, standing straight and tightly clutching the handle of her purse.  
Seeming nervous and almost out of place in her own skin, "May I come in?"

It had been weeks since news broke that Barbara Kean had awoken from her coma, but Bird had never expected her to get out of Arkham that soon after.

"Look, I'm really exhausted… so if you're here to try and kill me or something, can we just bypass catty remarks and skip to the fight to the death part-"

"No!" Barbara quickly interrupted, seeming appalled by the idea, "You're my best friend. Why would I want to kill you?"

"We're not friends." Bird argued, turning in place to watch as Barbara walked right inside of her house without first securing the invite.

"I deserve that." The blonde nodded, her ashamed gaze falling to the floor. "I didn't come here expecting you to forgive and forget, but I do hope we might be able to move past this… one day."

Bird let out another sigh. She had no idea what the hell Strange was doing the to patients in Arkham, but Barbara looked about as harmless as Oswald had when he was released.

"I'm a different person now." Barbara began to say, but Bird cut her off, "All sane now? Let me guess, you've got a certificate to prove it?"

"How did you know?" Barbara's eyebrows lowered as she looked down to her handbag where she'd neatly folded up her certificate for safe keeping.

"When I woke up, I was horrified by the things I'd done." Barbara tried to jump back into the conversation, "I don't feel like that person anymore."

"Who do you think you're talking to?" Bird complained, "B, come on. We've all done things we're not proud of, but no one wakes up one day is just a different person."

"I know what you must think of me…" The blonde's voice wavered, "How… how you must hate me, but-"

"I don't hate you." Bird stated, "But we'll never be friends again, B. Not like before."

"But, why?" Barbara pushed.

"Because when I think of you. When I look at you-" Bird spoke motioning towards her, "All I can think of is how I was there for when you had no one. After your breakup with Jim and when things went south with Renee, I was there. I listened to you cry for weeks on end. You were camped out on my couch for like a month!"

"I know." Barbara blinked rapidly to keep her tears at bay, "I remember."

"Yeah?" Bird scoffed, "Well, after I think of that -I think of how you turned on me. How you were working with Galavan. That children's hospital benefit? Remember that, B? When you endangered my brothers life. You told Jerome to kill Alfred."

"Bruce was never in any real danger that night!" She tried to defend, but she could tell her point was moot.

"I can forgive a lot." Bird spoke calmly, ignoring her outburst, "But not that. When it comes to my brother… when it comes to Alfred; my family. I can't and I won't forgive that-"

The end of Bird's sentence was cut shot when her attention was pulled over to the front door when it opened.

Both Bird and Barbara looked over to see Jim as he opened the door and rushed in before coming to a quick stop and looking between them.

"Well…" Barbara cleared her throat and clutched onto the handle of her purse even tighter, "Aren't you two adorable... him rushing over here in the middle of the night because he's worried."

Pinning her eyes shut, she thought of how he used to worry about her that way.  
The look of concern and worry on his face when he first burst through the door was the very expression she'd seen on his face the numerous times she'd ended up danger.

With her face scrunched up, Bird held her arms out to the sides as she looked at Jim with an expectant expression.

Why was it everyone always wanted to show up when she was so exhausted she could hardly see straight?

"I tried to call you." He admitted, though the look on his face changed and his voice grew quieter as he added, "You didn't pick up."

After Barbara had come to see him a little earlier that night and she'd brought up Bird, he'd been worried about the situation and how it might play out.  
He was well aware that Bird could take care of herself, but knowing that she was probably in bed asleep left him on edge now that Barbara was out of Arkham.

"Okay…" Bird sighed, pausing long enough to reach up and rub her eyes before she placed a hand on Barbara's back and said, "I'll walk you out."

"Good night, Jim." Barbara said, not taking her eyes off of him as Bird pushed her towards the still open door.

Bird pulled it closed behind her but not hard enough that the door latched.

Jim waited a few seconds before he walked over and peered through the crack, watching as Bird led Barbara down the steps to where her car was waiting on her.

"Take care of yourself, Barbara." Bird said through chattering teeth as she stood out in the freezing air barefoot and with only a thin nightgown and robe on.

"I don't blame you." Barbara called after her when Bird had only made it a few steps away, "It's not really your fault. He's hard not to fall in love with. It happened so fast for me. A few dates and I was swept away."

Turning back around to face her, Bird shook her head back and forth.

"It's not like that." Bird argued.

"Come on, B." Barbara smiled with tears in her eyes as she used their shared nickname for one another and mirrored something Bird had said to her earlier, "Who do you think you're talking to?"

"No, I mean it." Bird asserted, stepping closer. "I had that once before though. The whole whirl wind romance thing… with Harvey." She recalled, "I didn't really have a choice there. Never stood a chance. I fell in love with him so fast and so hard it was completely out of my control."

"I'd never felt anything like that before and honestly, I'm not sure I ever will again." She continued.

Jim's gaze dropped from where he was watching them down to the floor.  
Caught a little off guard by how much it stung to hear her stay that.

He was just about to turn away and stop eavesdropping on them, but stopped when Barbara bitterly laughed, "After everything we've been through, you're going to stand there and lie to me about this?"

"I'm not lying." Bird defended, taking another step closer to the blonde, "With Harvey, I was head over heels before I ever even really knew him. But with Jim?"

Shaking her head, she continued, "I know exactly who he is. There was no blindly falling; I walked into this with both of my eyes open."

When Jim saw Bird turn back towards her house and leave a crushed Barbara standing next to her car, he quickly stepped away from where he'd been standing to watch them; with Bird's words, ones she'd probably never admit out loud to him, still playing in his head.

He'd just made it around the corner and out of sight when he heard the front door swing open and then nearly slam shut.

Moments later Bird found him in the short hallway off the entryway that led into the main sitting room.

Slowing to a stop, she stared at him with her arms wrapped around herself for warmth, still trembling from being so under-dressed to step foot outside in the winter.

"Are you okay?" He finally questioned, caving to the impromptu staring contest she'd initiated as he glanced down to the floor and then back to her face.

With a blank expression on her face, she blinked a few times before stating in a deadpan voice, "I'm a little cold, Jim."

Not waiting for a response of any kind from him, Bird moved past him into the living room where she snatched up the throw blanket from the back of the couch before climbing into her favorite chair and pulling the blanket up to her chin.

In silence, Jim sat down on the couch and looked over at her, waiting until she looked at him before pointing out, "You knew before me. About Barbara and Nygma… you knew Jerome was guilty when I thought he was just some kid who'd lost his mom."

Sinking further into the cushions, he looked back over at her and pointed out, "You never even seem surprised by it."

"This is Gotham." Bird lazily shrugged, "Nothing surprises me anymore."

"Sure." He conceded, "But this is more than that."

"You told me yourself that you thought we were all born with light and darkness inside of us." Bird reminded him, a genuine look of curiosity on her face when she asked, "So why does it always seem to surprise you so much when someone caves to the dark?"

"You're saying that where I look for the good in people; you see the bad?" Jim gathered.

With a nod she agreed, "I usually expect the worst."

"That's a very cynical way to live." He countered.

With a loud laugh that almost ended in a snort, Bird looked at him from under her sleep weighted eyelids and exclaimed, "I guess so, but it beats trusting the wrong person and getting shot by someone you considered a friend."

Seeing the lack of amusement on his face as she poked fun at what had only happened to him mere days before, Bird was still smiling as she asked, "Too soon?"

"A little." Jim sighed.

He still couldn't fully wrap his mind around what had happened with Nygma. How he could have been so wrong about his co-worker?

"I can't understand it." He finally admitted, earning a small groan from Bird who wanted nothing more than to catch up on the sleep she'd been deprived of.  
Rubbing his own tired eyes, Jim muttered under his breath, "He's insane."

"Of course he is." She agreed, before adding, "But aren't we all a little unstable in our own right? That's what life does to us."

"Not like him-"

"Seriously?" Bird complained, sitting up further in her chair and leaning forward some, letting the blanket fall now that she'd had a chance to warm up, "No one just wakes up one day and decides to kill people. It's like…"

Pulling in a breath, she shook her head, "It's like when you watch the news after something bad has happened and everyone is talking about how the person who did the bad thing just snapped. As if out of nowhere they just did a full one-eighty and no one can believe it."

"But the truth is, it's like building a bomb, you know? Piece by piece… until everything needed to create an explosion is there and the wick is lit." Bird said.

Her mind drifted back to the first time she'd ever met Edward Nygma, how they'd quite literally ran into each other one day at the police station and the arm full of folders he'd been carrying rained down and scattered around them.

He'd been so surprised when she helped him pick everything back up and even more shocked when she not only wasn't annoyed when he told her a riddle; she actually laughed and played along, trying to guess the answer to the next one.

Shaking the thoughts from her head, Bird pulled her blanket back up and settled back into her chair as she announced, "I'm going to sleep now. If it's going to make you feel better, you can stay, but I doubt Barbara's going to come after me and if she does -I'll handle it."

With a raised brow, Jim glanced over at her and watched in silence while she already appeared to be asleep.

"Goodnight, Bird."

"Goodnight, Jim Gordon." Bird breathed, not even cracking an eye open to look at him again.

He watched her for a little while longer before he rested his head back against the couch and closed his eyes with thoughts of what she'd said still on his mind.

She claimed she saw the bad in people around her and from what he'd seen, it rang true enough.  
But now he couldn't help but wonder what she saw when she looked at him.

He'd barely been a few days into his career as a detective with the GCPD when Bullock warned him that this wasn't a city for nice guys.

That day felt like ages ago now. He'd been so headstrong in the beginning, already believing himself to know how the world works.

But he was wrong.

Nothing had been nearly as clear cut as he'd thought.  
Gotham was a city painted in varying shades of gray.

A city where criminals had saved his life more than once; while the supposed good guys were the ones ready to pull the trigger.

He wasn't the same person as he was back then. Not after doing things he'd never thought he would, all in the name of a greater good.

Too much had changed for him to remain the same, but he better understood how Gotham worked now.

His entire life had changed when he caught the Wayne murder case and he didn't see a way of moving forward while it remained unsolved.  
He owed that to Bruce and to Bird as well.

Finally letting himself feel how exhausted he was, it was a slight struggle to get his eyes open when he looked over to where Bird was sleeping as he thought of what he'd overheard her stay to Barbara -and knew for himself that he couldn't deny just how much she meant to him.

••• **days later •••**

By the time Bird found her way into the kitchen at the Van Dahl house, she could already taste blood from where she'd bit down on the side of her tongue to keep from putting Grace in her place.

When Oswald's stepmother had answered the door, she'd made it quite clear that Elijah's open invitation for her to be there had expired along with him.

Finally, she'd let Bird in the house and told her that Oswald was preparing dinner and she'd do good to not distract him and make the meal run late.

"Oswald?" Bird called out as she walked into the kitchen, but didn't see her friend anywhere.

He'd left her a message earlier that day and said he'd discovered some information about Grace, but didn't go into much detail.

Usually, she was good at deciphering what was going on from the tone in his voice, but ever since Strange had messed with his head, she didn't know what to expect.

Drumming her nails on the counter, she glanced around until her eyes landed on a martini glass with a bright green liquid in it.

"Absinthe?" She wondered out loud to herself as she reached for the stem of a glass and a took a drink to wash down the coppery tinge the blood had left in her mouth.

"You should mindful of what you drink in this house." Oswald commented as he walked into the room.

"Hey-" Bird started to greet when she spun around, but stopped when she saw how his hair was no longer combed over to one side like he'd been wearing it.

He looked much more like his old self, back before he was admitted into Arkham.

"You look…" Her voice trailed off and her eyes squinted some, "Oswald?"

"Yes, Bird?" He asked with a smile spreading over his lips.

"What happened?"

The smile disappeared and the corners of his mouth angled down as he stepped up to her and said, "You were right. Grace isn't the woman I believed her to be." Through gritted teeth, he furthered, "Sasha and Charles are just younger versions of that… that monster."

"I couldn't see it before." He pinned his eyes shut and hit his hand against the side of his head rather roughly, "Professor Strange messed with my head. He tortured me until I turned into something else."

"But you're back to your old self now?" She carefully questioned.

"I am." He nodded.  
Pausing for a moment before his head cocked to the side and he questioned, "Isn't this what you wanted?"

Bird shrugged, not knowing what to say.

She'd never wanted him to be anything other than who he was, but most of all she wanted him to be happy.

"She killed my father." Oswald went on to explain, "Grace. She poisoned him. I found the bottle he'd gotten a drink from right before he collapsed and died in my arms. She never loved him. She only wanted him for his money."

"But you knew that already, didn't you?" He asked.

"I had my suspicions. I'm sorry." Bird frowned, "I was worried about you and I tried to tell you-"

"I know." He held a hand up to silence her, "You have nothing to apologize for."

She'd remained his friend, even though he'd essentially turned into a different person. Despite his not wanting to hear it at the time, she'd done her best to caution him about the people he was living with and calling his family.

The days that had passed since his father's funeral had been miserable to say the very least.

Grace claiming she needed help with the house, turned into Oswald waiting on them all hand and foot. He'd done all of the cooking -only to hear them complain and watch as they spit their food back out and even pelted him with dinner rolls.

All of the cleaning had been left up to him and Grace was always barking at him to make her another drink and would nearly blow her top of they were out of cherries for garnish.

He'd taken it all in stride, trying to tell himself that they were all in mourning and things would eventually get better.

That was until he found proof that they'd killed Elijah.  
Ever since that moment… there had been a rage boiling inside.

A fever that would be impossible to sweat out.  
A sickness that only had one cure -to make all three of them pay for what they'd done.

To pay with their lives.

"Oswald!" Grace's voice rang throughout the large house, "Where's dinner?"

"Almost done, Grace." He yelled back.

Looking over at Bird he broke out into a fit of unstable laughter, so intense that he seemed to be having trouble standing.

Glancing around them, Bird asked, "What's going on?"

"I've been cooking for them." He explained as he pulled on the apron he'd left draped over the counter, "Making my mother's favorite recipes, Grace has done nothing but complain… so I though tonight I'd whip something special up for her."

With another laugh, he grabbed the oven mitts and opened the oven to reveal he'd cooked not just one, but two roasts.

As he removed them from the oven, Bird sniffed the air and tried to determine what he'd cooked.

At first she thought it smelled a bit like pork, but looking at it, it appeared to look more like beef.

Once the second roast was out and the oven door closed, Bird stepped closer to where he'd set the pans on the counter and questioned, "Oswald… what is this?"

Turning back around with a carving fork and large knife in his hands he smiled as he pointed, "That's Charles… and the one over there is Sasha."

"Oh my god…" She breathed, taking a step back away from the roasts she'd been inspecting.

"You're going to feed her own kids to her?" Bird whisper-yelled at him.

"She deserves nothing less." He was quick to defend.

Laying the utensils down on the counter, he reminded her, "My father died in my arms. She's responsible."

Seeing the repulsed expression she was wearing, Oswald complained, "Don't pick now to get squeamish, Bird."

"I'm not." She argued, "I just…"

Her voice trailed off, she was unsure of how to finish her sentence.

It wasn't that she didn't think Grace deserved this, it was more so a feeling like she didn't truly have her Oswald back.

He would have killed Grace and her grown children, sure. But this was a new level of sadistic and even though Elijah was gone, the fact that this was happening in his house left her feeling a little ill.

It even crossed her mind to point that out, that Elijah wouldn't have wanted his death to result in Oswald going down this route, but she stopped herself.

Not only didn't she have any room to judge him, but it wouldn't do any good anyways.

She knew her best friend well enough to know that he was currently seeing a world painted in red rage and the only thing that would begin to clear it would be to dish out punishment as he saw fit.

"Well…" Bird sighed, "I know they say revenge is a dish best served cold, but I think we should serve this out while it's still hot, don't you?"

The smile returned to Oswald's face, this was his Bird, the one person he knew would be by his side until the end.

"Indeed, I do." He agreed, before getting to work on transferring his step-siblings from the roasting pans onto the serving platters.

It was a short time later that the dinner spread was on the dining table and Grace took her new seat at the head of the table.

She eyed Bird when the younger woman sat down with a glass of wine in hand, but didn't say anything out loud.  
Once she was gone, she'd tell Oswald he wasn't to invite her over again.

Bird slowly drank from her glass as she watched Oswald cut a slice of meat off of one of the roasts and serve it to Grace with a smile. Standing back up, he stood beside the table watching as she cut the section into smaller pieces and took a bite.

"How is it?" He asked, "Not too gamey?"

"Overcooked." She complained, even though she had no problems taking another bite.

"Oh, then try the other joint. It is much more tender." Oswald insisted, cutting a slab of meat off of the other and serving it up; while Bird found herself unable to remember which one was which.

With a disappointed noise, Grace finished chewing up the bite of the second roast and said, "It's the same."

"Hmm." Oswald feigned disappointment, "Still, beats my slut mother's goulash, no?"

Bird's eyes narrowed, realizing that must have been something she'd said after Oswald cooked his mother's recipe for them.

"Where are the children?" Grace asked, side-eyeing him, "Ring the bell again."

"I doubt they'll hear it." Oswald smiled..

"You look different." Grace noticed, as she picked up another bite of meat on her fork and ate it.

"Hmm…" Oswald laughed with a hum, "You noticed! Yes, I'm doing my hair a different way."

"I, for one, love it." Bird called out, raising her glass up in the air towards him before taking another drink.

"Charles! Sasha!" Grace yelled, starting to feel unnerved with just the two of them in the room with her, "Where are they?" She questioned looking back to Oswald.

"I found the sherry decanter, Grace." He admitted, "The one with poison in it that you used to kill my father."

Bird watched as the older woman's breathing changed, her breaths grew shallow and rapid.

"What on earth are you talking about?" Grace asked, her fork fell from her hand and landed with a clink against the table.

"You should have thrown it away!" He yelled, biting back a laugh as he got down to eye level with her and could see the terror staring to take shape within, "Guess you're a little too mean to waste good poison, huh?"

With a gasp, Grace tried to jump up, but when Oswald was quick to grab the large knife, she helplessly fell back into her seat as a wild look took over his eyes and he said, "Don't go!"

"Charles! Sasha! Help!" She screamed out in broken sentences, for the first time feeling a real sense fear from her stepson.

She'd never liked him and although it was alarming to come across the news in old papers of what he and Bird had done, she hadn't truly considered them to be a threat. Especially not Oswald, who took hers and her kids cruelty and abuse with a smile.

"They're not coming." Bird spoke up, barely glancing at the woman while she reached for the opened bottle of wine to top off her own glass.

"Where are they?" She cried, her voice airy and throat tight.

"You thought they tasted the same!" Oswald pointed at her with the end of the carving knife, taking enjoyment in the moment she realized she'd been eating her own children.

"But, Sasha-" Oswald stuck his finger into one of the roasts and then licked the juices off, "Definitely more tender… in my opinion."

"No, no, no." Grace sobbed, shaking her head back and forth, "No…"

She looked over to Bird, hoping that she might come to her aide. As if they way she'd acted towards her would have earned any kindness.

When she whipped her head back to look at Oswald, she caught sigh of the gleam of candlelight reflect off the blade when he raised it up into the air.

"NO!" She shrieked seconds before he brought the knife down and lodged it deep into her shoulder.

Bird watched with an emotionless expression as Oswald pulled the knife free and swung it down, again and again as Grace tried to get out of the chair and her screams turned to broken sobs and gasps until finally all was quiet - aside from the sounds of blood still dripping down onto the wood floor.

Breathing heavily, Oswald dropped the knife and picked up Grace's glass of wine that was now spattered with blood from the table and staggered over to an empty chair.

Bird gave him a few minutes to catch his breath before she asked, "Should I call someone for cleanup or are we doing this ourselves?"

"Not tonight, Bird." Oswald declined, his eyesight fixed on Grace's dead body, "Not tonight."  
Her eyes were still wide open, frozen in time with the horror of her last few moments on earth.

"I think that's a mistake." Bird argued, "What if someone comes to the house?"

"Let them." He breathed before finishing off the wine in his glass.

Bird's stomach turned.  
Not from the smell or sight of freshly cooked human flesh on the table, or even the blood soaked corpse just a few chairs over.

No, what left her stomach in knots was feeling like she might never really have her friend back to who he was before.

"How long are you going to keep their bodies here?" Bird finally asked, but Oswald didn't seem to hear her as still held onto the empty glass and stared at Grace's body.

••• **a few nights later •••**

"Look who it is." Lily commented as the door to the room she'd been held in for weeks opened and Bird walked in.

"I've been wondering who gave orders to hold me prisoner." The older woman sighed looking to her biological daughter while she remained seated in the chair she'd been sitting in to watch the small screen T.V.

Bird let out a sigh and and crossed the room, leaning against the wall as she looked at the woman who she'd waited her whole life to meet -only to be let down.

"You should have known I'd have people watching you." Bird shook her head, "Just couldn't stay away, could you? Galavan's dead. You fled Gotham. You should have stayed gone."

"Why should I?" Lily asked, standing up and flipping her long raven hair over her shoulder, "I've spent far too much of my life running."

Bird had gotten word a while ago that not only was Lily back in Gotham, but that her biological mother had hired a lawyer and was trying to become Bruce's legal guardian. Which would essentially give her control of both Wayne Enterprises and the family fortune.

Lily had felt robbed of her claim to what she felt was her birthright, and was now showing she was willing to do just about anything to take it back.

"I'm not going to let you destroy my brothers life." Bird stated.

"I'm not looking to ruin anyone's life. That's not why I'm here." She tried to argue, but Bird wasn't having it, "That is exactly what you intend to do."

"No." Lily rose to her feet, "I'm doing exactly what you should have done the moment Thomas was killed. A butler is raising Bruce, for gods sake. You're an adult, you should have fought for custody of him and control of the company."

"I don't want the company!" Bird yelled.

"Don't you?" Lily's lips curved up into a smile, "Because rumor has it you're about to get a big wig position at the end of the year."

Bird swallowed hard.

The truth was that she didn't really want to run the company, it was always supposed to go to Bruce and she was fine with that.

But it wasn't until recently, when the community outreach director position had been offered to her that she realized she did want to have a part in the work that meant so much to her parents.

"Wayne Enterprises doesn't belong to you." Bird pulled in a shallow breath, barely enough air to fuel her words, "I'd kill you to see to that."

Lily cocked her head to the side, her dark brown eyes peering out from under long lashes with a look of wonder that was clear to read.

She was trying to gauge if Bird really had it in her to kill the woman who'd given birth to her so many years ago.

"You were scared of Theo Galavan." Bird reasoned, "And you think since he's dead and Falcone has retired that you're free, but you're not. I'm still here. I've won all of those fights. I came back from the dead. Don't fool yourself into thinking that just because we share blood secures your safety. Blood doesn't make family, loyalty does and you have none."

"You really only have three options." Bird presented, "The first one is that you let go of your selfishness and greed. You stay and you get to know me, get to know your nephew. No trying to take the company or get your hands on the family fortune, but I'll make sure you're provided for-"

"Why would you do that?" Lily cut in, feeling like option one was a trap of some kind.

"When we met, I know you were trying to manipulate me, but I have to believe that somewhere -deep down, there was some truth in what you were saying when you said you wanted to make up for lost time. I'm willing to make that effort." Bird answered.

"Okay…" Lily breathed, "I'm guessing option two is certain death, so what's my third?"

"There's a car out front with a briefcase containing a lot of cash. It's all yours. On the condition that you never come back to Gotham and that you never try to contact me or Bruce ever again." Bird explained.

"I'll take three." Lily jumped at the chance.  
Which made it all the more apparent to Bird that she'd never truly be gone. She'd come back wanting more money or trying to take over the company, blackmail or do anything she could to get what she wanted.

"If that's what you want…" Bird nodded, "But be warned that there will be consequences to face with that option. Maybe not tomorrow or even a year down the road, but you will pay for that greed. It will come back and bite you in the ass for everything you've done to me."

"Bird, look." Lily sighed, "I'm never going to be the mother you want. I think we both know that and it's going to be better for all of us if I just go my own way. Why would you even want me to stick around?"

"It's what you owe me." She answered, "The most selfish and greedy choice you could make would be to take that money and run. Blowing through my life like a storm the way you have and then just taking off while I'm still trying to clean up the debris…"

"I think you're afraid to stay." Bird added, "Afraid to really get to know me, because what if it works out, huh? I think it terrifies you, because you don't get to pick and choose what you feel. In order to feel the good, you'll have to let the bad in too and it might swallow you whole."

"Well, I think you're expecting far too much out of me." She was quick to dismiss.  
Making it clear that she didn't want or need time to think think her options over.

"You're sure?" Bird asked, her tone somber.

"Yeah." Lily nodded, "I'll take door number three."

Bird instructed Lily to follow her and led her out of the building she'd been held in to a nearly empty street and pointed to the car she'd told her about.

"Once you get into that car and take that money, there is no turning back." Bird warned as her mother made it a few steps away from her.

When Lily turned out, she gave a helpless shrug, "Maybe in some other life things would have been different."

"Maybe." Bird repeated back as she watched her cross the street and open the driver's side door.

Lily got into the car and opened the briefcase in the passenger seat to reveal it was full of stacks of hundreds. There was enough there to live comfortably for quite sometime.

And when it ran out, she'd come up with a plan for more.  
In her eyes, Bird had showed her hand. Showed that she didn't have it in her to kill her and confirmed that her love for Bruce was the chink in her armor.

For now she'd take the money and flee town, but she still had her eyes on the treasure chest, the family fortune and one day it would be hers.

Closing the case, she laid it back and down and pulled the door shut before she turned the key and started the engine.  
But when she went to shift the car into drive, the locks all clicked to close.

Confused, Lily looked around the inside of the car until her eyes landed on the smoke starting to flood in through the air vents.

Frantically, she started trying to open her door and get out, but the lock were stuck in place.

Bird stood in place and watched as Lily tried to shut the car off, but it was useless. The key wasn't going to come out of the ignition.  
Just like she'd warned her, option three had consequences.

"I wasn't sure you'd go through with it." Victor Zsasz said as he stepped up next to Bird and watched as Lily beat on the windows with her fists, growing weaker by the second, "Killing your own mother."

"I didn't kill her." Bird argued, watching as all movement inside of the car finally ceased, "I gave her options, but sometimes… you have to just to sit back and watch people destroy themselves."

"She wasn't ever going to stop, Victor." She quickly added, "People like Lilith Wayne just take and take and it's never enough. This was the only way I could ensure my brother's safety-"

"Hey, you don't owe me an explanation." He cut her off, "I never liked her anyways."

With a slight sniffle in the cold air, Bird asked, "You remember the plan."

"Don't worry." Victor assured her, "No one will know you had anything to do with it. As far as Gotham is concerned, Lilith Wayne committed suicide."

"Thank you." Bird expressed with a curt nod and a glance at her old friend, before she turned and walked away towards the car she'd driven there.

"Anytime." Victor quietly said as he watched her go, thinking to himself that she had much more of her biological father in her than she'd ever care to admit.  
Donning the Wayne name or not; there was no doubt that she was a Falcone.

Once Bird made it to her car, she got in and let out the breath she'd been holding.

She wasn't sure how one should feel after watching a biological parent suffocate to death in front of their eyes, but she felt a small sense of relief in knowing that the threat had been neutralized.

It had been a trying year for Bird to say the least. Enduring everything from being locked in Arkham and living under the threat that was Theo Galavan, to nearly dying.

She'd sat face-to-face and shared a conversation with the man who'd killed her parents -before she ended his life.

So much had felt like it happened in such a short time and she knew that it all had changed her, probably in ways she wasn't even aware of yet.

But it finally felt like she was able to close the chapter of her life that was holding her back.

It was a bittersweet feeling, allowing herself to let go of the blame and anger she'd been holding onto for the woman who'd given birth to and then abandoned her and finally feel like she could move past it now that she was gone.

•••

Jim looked up from where he was sitting at the island counter in Bird's kitchen to where she was standing with her back to him, still speaking to someone on the phone.

Taking another drink from his mug of coffee, he waited patiently for her to end the phone call so they could get back to talking.

He'd come there to tell her he'd been investigating her parent's murders on his own since he declined Barnes' offer to be reinstated on the police force.

Over the last week he'd rattled more than one cage trying to get to the bottom of who'd hired Matches Malone and with Bird's connections on the streets, he figured it would only be a matter of time before she found out.

To begin with he didn't want to bring it up until he had some concrete evidence or at the very least, a working theory to share -but since he hadn't gotten that far, he wanted to make sure she heard it from him first.

"Yes. I, uh… I understand. Thank you for calling me." Bird politely replied just before ending the call and laying her cellphone down on the counter.

"Everything okay?" Jim questioned, watching her closely when she turned back around to face him with an unreadable expression on her face.

"I don't know." Bird answered as her forehead lined, "Garret Bryne died."  
Finally making eye contact she spoke in a stunned voice, "He had a heart-attack."

Noting that she seemed more shocked than saddened by the news, Jim held back his condolences and questioned, "Who's Garret Bryne?"

"The community outreach director with Wayne Enterprises." Bird answered, staring to feel a bit lightheaded when she added, "Or, I guess technically he was…"

Jim started to question if she'd known Garret, but then he remembered the conversation they'd had when he'd still been in Blackgate.  
The current community outreach chair was retiring at years end and that when Bird would be taking over the position.

When the shock started to wear off and he could see she was starting to look more upset by the second, he stood up and walked closer as he asked, "I thought you really wanted that position within the company?"

"I do." She was almost a little too quick to answer, "But not until next year! I wanted more time to prepare for this."

With a growing worried expression, Bird let out an unhinged laugh and rubbed her forehead, "I just inherited all the fundraiser events for the rest of the year. I didn't want this job until those shelters were finished and now…"

Her voice trailed off and Jim offered an empathetic smile, "So, you get to start your new job a few months early? Bird, you're going to do fine."

She stared back at him with her mouth slightly open. He couldn't possibly know something like that.

Aside from her time working under Fish, she'd never actually had a real job before -and this one came with an office and responsibilities.

Before she had too much time to get caught up in her own head about what was happening, the sound of her doorbell rang through the house.

"Want me to get it?" Jim asked when Bird didn't make a single attempt to head for the door.

"No, I'll-" Her voice trailed off when she heard footsteps coming down the hallway and she and Jim exchanged looks just before Bullock walked into sight.

Looking between them, he focused on Bird and pointed out, "Gotham isn't the sorta place you want to leave your door unlocked."

Shaking her head, Bird asked, "What are you doing here, Bullock?"

"I got some bad news." He admitted, looking over to Jim and wondering if he'd told her about how he was going off on his own to find out who'd hired Malone yet.

With a confused look gracing her features, Bird asked, "Is this about Garret Bryne? Because I literally just got off the phone and…"  
Seeing that now he was the one looking lost, Bird added, "Okay, from the look on your face, I'm going to guess this isn't about Bryne. What's going on?"

Knowing that Bird was an upfront person and didn't sugarcoat things when it came to speaking to others, he decided to show her the same respect and not waste her time.

"We need you to come to the morgue and identify a body." Bullock said as he reached up and pulled his hat off, "A woman's body was found early this morning and we believe it's Lilith Wayne. As her next of kin…"  
"Well…" He cleared his throat, "I'm sorry, but the responsibility falls to you."

"Bird?" Jim asked when she remained in place, perfectly composed and almost like she hadn't heard what was said to her.

She'd had this all planned out, rehearsed how she'd react to the news when she got it.

But the phone call she'd gotten earlier had thrown her off her game and she was still struggling to get past how much her life was changing in such a short time.

"I…" She breathed, "I thought Lily fled Gotham after everything that went down with Galavan."

"She must have come back." Bullock stated, giving her a sympathetic look, "If you'd rather do this tomorrow-"

"No." Bird shook her head.

"No?" Bullock repeated back, glancing at Jim, "No, you don't want to wait until tomorrow. Or, no, you're not up to this at all?"

"I don't need to wait." She clarified, "Let's just get this over with."

•••

Bird slowed to a stop as she reached her front steps and found Jim sitting there waiting on her.

"I thought you were going home." She quietly said.  
Her voice sounded tired and weak.

"I did." He admitted, looking up to where she stood, "But then I came back."

When Bullock had showed up earlier, Jim had offered -more like insisted he go with her to the morgue, but she'd been very adamant that she wanted to do this by herself.

"It was her." Bird said, glancing up to the late evening sky, "They, uh, they said neighbors near the house she'd been renting under a fake name called the police when they heard a car running in the garage overnight. Apparently she came back to Gotham to kill herself."

With a shrug and the sound of air being forced from her chest, Bird's shoulders slouched forward, "It doesn't make any sense, but it is what it is I guess."

"I know. Bullock called me." Jim said, starting to stand up but stopped when instead she sat down next to him on the cement steps.

"I'm okay." She assured him, but when she blinked her eyes all she could see was the sight of her birth mother's pale face in such stark contrast to her dark raven hair, laid out on that metal table just as the sheet had been pulled back to reveal the deceased's face.

She'd stood there and watched Lily die just the prior day. Heard her screams for help and watched as she frantically beat her fists against the window as the car filled with smoke and she suffocated.

That wasn't what haunted her now though. No, instead it was the sight of the body on the metal table.  
Lifeless and empty.

Jim nodded. He wasn't sure if she was handling this okay or not, but he knew she wouldn't admit it if she wasn't.

Bird reached up and tucked her hair behind her ears. Everyone who'd seen her and Lily together always commented how much alike they were in appearance.

Maybe that was part of what had her so shaken, that in many ways it felt like she was staring at her own future.

Feeling mortal was always unsettling.  
Especially for someone touched by death so many times in their life.

And for some reason, she just kept thinking about the roasts that Oswald had served Grace.  
How much meat from the human body resembled that of animals raised for slaughter and consumption.

At the end of the day maybe that's all humans were as well- just a pile of meat.

"What are you thinking about?" Jim asked when it became apparent that Bird was miles away from being in the moment with him.

"Matches Malone." She couldn't help but chuckle at her answer and how if he'd asked that same question a few minutes earlier her answer would have been vastly different.

Jim was caught off guard. He wasn't sure what answer he was expecting, but that certainly wasn't it.

"Before he died, he told Bruce and I about how this one man he'd killed haunted him above all others. About how he couldn't remember the guy's name or even how he killed him. And I was just thinking how that's the damnedest thing, you know?" Bird turned slightly to better face Jim, "It's always the things you never thought would bother you."

She didn't miss the look of concern in his blue eyes as he stared back at her.  
He clearly had no idea that she'd been the one responsible for Lily's death, she doubted he'd be looking at her the same way if he did.

"I just keep seeing her body on that metal slab and I just…" Letting out a helpless laugh, Bird reached up and rubbed her face, "I didn't love her. It's not like I'm going to miss her."  
With another shrug, she asked aloud, "So why can't I get her out of my head."

"I don't know." Jim softly said.

Bird gave another shrug and leaned sideways to rest her head against the metal railing to the stairs.

She wouldn't call it regret.  
She was sure she didn't regret what happened.

After all, it had ultimately been Lily's choice and in the end her own selfishness was what killed her.

Bird couldn't put her finger on exactly what it was that left her feeling restless and sad and for the life of her; she couldn't understand it.

Lily was never going to be the mother she wanted, not the woman she'd dreamed about growing up when she'd given so many names and faces inside of her head when she'd dream up her biological parents.

Bird thought she'd made peace with that.

Perhaps it wasn't the loss itself that was affecting her, but the missed opportunities that seeing her mother's dead body set in stone.

She was dead and somehow now felt even more so once Bird saw her lifeless corpse and for reasons still beyond her ability to grasp, she was sad.

Pinning her eyes shut, Bird pulled in a shaky breath and tried again to shake the mental images of Lily's body, but she couldn't.  
They seemed to be held to the back of her eyelids with superglue.

It wasn't until she felt an arm slide around her lower back that she even remembered Jim was still sitting on the steps with her.

Without even looking over at him, she pushed away from the railing and let his grip tighten around her as she leaned against his side and rested her head against his shoulder.

Even though her mind was still reeling from the day, her head seemed to quiet some in his embrace.  
She couldn't help but remember a time when she thought Harvey Dent was the only one with the ability to do that.

Slowly she raised her head and looked at Jim, internally swearing that she'd take the truth of what happened with Lily to her grave.  
She didn't regret what she'd done, but she also felt like no one else could begin to understand why she'd done what she did and that wasn't worth losing anyone over.

Especially not Jim, who already knew a lot of the bad she'd done and yet was still staring back at her like she was the reason the stars were shining so bright that night.

Oh, what she'd give to bottle that look in his eyes up and keep it forever.  
Have it on hand for the nights that were too dark for the stars to shine.

When he leaned down, his head moving closer to hers until finally his mouth was on hers, she didn't shy away.

For someone who considered themselves selfish, Bird often put the things she wanted out of life on the back burner. Put others wants and needs above her own and even tricked herself into believing that she didn't deserve the things that would make her happy.

But not this time.

She couldn't pinpoint the exact moment in time in which it happened, but somewhere along the way, Jim Gordon had become someone she'd not only fight for, but one that she'd fight to keep in her life.

Even once the kiss was broken, they'd hardly moved.  
Still close enough that with only a slight head tilt, his forehead rested against hers.

Jim knew exactly how he felt about her -it was something he'd known for quite sometime.  
Even when it wasn't right and left them both walking a knife's edge while being in committed relationships with someone else.

He loved her.  
Even in her darkness and the times where their moral compasses were in complete disagreement with the other, that hadn't changed.

With his thumb gently caressing her cheek as they sat in silence with just the sounds of passing traffic fading into background noise -both of them admitting and accepting that there was no where else on earth they'd rather be than in that moment together.

 **•••**

* * *

 **A/N - So apparently January 23rd was the one year mark of when I posted this story! lol  
And I've been writing the series since back in 2015. ^_^  
**

 **Thank you all so much for reading! It's amazing to know I still have some of the same fans from back when I first started this series. Thanks for sticking with me and Bird. And I extend a very warm welcome to all of my newer readers.**

 **I also want to take a moment to thank: Shadow knight1121, Rasiel Hasu, chodofaggins, PetrovaLover, Love. Fiction. 2018, Katniss789, Munyue, xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, SmellYourScentForMiles, Jane, DancingDorisDay and the Guests who have all reviewed the last chapter.**

 **I'm looking forward to another year of sharing Bird's story with all of you!**

 **xx**


	28. All In For Life

**XXVIII**

" _The songs of our ancestors are also the songs of our children" - Philip Carr-Gomm_

* * *

•••

"This looks promising." Alfred exclaimed as he stepped out of the drivers seat of the car and paused to look at the rickety old cabin before he shut the car door.

"I said you could stay home." Bird reminded him.

"Right then." He nearly laughed, "And let the two of you handle this all on your own, eh?"

"Yes, Alfred." Bruce chimed in as he followed his sister and butler up the walkway to the door of the house.

Now that their father's computer had been repaired, Bruce and Bird had spent all of the prior night trying to figure out the pass codes needed to access the information stored on the drive.

They hadn't uncovered everything yet, but they'd managed to get into the calendar and uncover the name and address of someone their father had met with not too long before he'd died.

Lucius offered to run the name through systems in Wayne Enterprises to see if anything popped up, but with the siblings already having an address in front of them -they weren't about to wait a second longer.

Which is why they were now out in the middle of the woods approaching a desolate house that could serve as a fitting location for any run of the mill horror movie.

Stepping in front of Bird, Alfred put his arm out to stop them, insisting that he be the one to knock on the door.

"Nope. No joy. Never mind. Still kind of nice to get out of the manor, have a little drive in the country-" Alfred was fast to give up on their earlier morning adventure, but Bruce was prepared with a lock-pick kit he'd picked up during his time on the streets with Selina.

"Ah, that's terrific, isn't it?" He muttered under his breath as he watched Bruce choose right the tools for job, "Street smarts? Street smarts, my eye"

"Shush, Alfred. These are merely technical skills." Bruce defended as he dropped to his knees and began to pick the lock, "Morally neutral."

"Morally neutral?" Bird repeated back with raised brows, "Sure, little brother. Think of it that way if it eases your conscience."

Blowing out a heavy breath that turned to white steam in the cold air, Bruce tried to block out the conversation behind him and focus on breaking into the house.

They were always on him to focus. Saying that being distracted would be the death of him, but they sure didn't make the process of trying to focus any easier on him.

"If you can't get it…" Bird sighed, "Move over and let me do it."

"Starling." Bruce complained, "I've almost got it."

"Clearly this wasn't meant to happen today. So lets get back in the car and head home." Alfred tried yet again to dissuade them.

The fact of the matter was that not a single one of them knew what they could be walking into.

"Ha!" Bruce exclaimed as the mechanism inside of the lock finally clicked and granted access to the house.

His excitement and pride over a job well done was soon dashed when he started to open the door -only to be pulled backwards by the hood of his coat by his sister while Alfred grabbed onto the door knob to keep it closed.

Slowly, Alfred opened the door just a crack to check for any kind of traps that might be waiting for them on the other side.  
When he didn't see anything dangerous, he drew his gun and proceeded to enter house, with Bird right on his heels and Bruce bringing up the last of the group.

The inside of the house was in much better condition than the outsides would lead one to believe.

Just as they passed through another doorway into a small, but cozy living room, Bruce's attention was pulled to to three deep scratches in the wood archway.

"It looks like an animal did this." He whispered under his breath.

Stepping beside him, Bird shook her head back and forth as she raised her own arm aligning her fingers with the deep indentations left in the wood.

"What the-" Alfred started to say when he came to a table with a deck of cards laid out for a game of solitaire with another set of deep scratches across the wooden surface.

His question was cut off when someone jumped out of where they'd been hiding and slashed across his arm, with what he suspected was a knife, causing him to lose his grip and his gun to fall to the floor.

Bird and Bruce both darted for the fallen weapon but it was he who reached it first.

"Careful, Master Bruce." Alfred warned, his voice strained from pain, "She's got some kind of weird hunting knife."

"Give me the gun." Bird instructed, keeping her eyes locked on the woman who was now across the room trying to shield herself in the shadows.

Bruce looked down to the gun in his hands and then glanced at his sister. It wasn't until he followed her line of sight that he was able to see where the woman was hiding across the room.

She was scared. He could tell it from where he was standing and he was confident enough that she didn't want to hurt them, but had lashed out from feeling threatened.

After all, she could have seriously injured Alfred, or worse, but instead she'd only hurt him enough to make him drop the gun.

"It's okay." Bruce's voice shook, "We're not here to hurt you."  
With that he he lowered the gun and started to kneel down and place it on the floor.

"What-what are you doing?" Alfred stammered, "Raise the gun."

"My name is Bruce Wayne." He introduced himself while ignoring Alfred, "I just want to talk to you."

"Bruce Wayne?"

Quickly, Bird threw her arm out in front of her brother as he tried to walk closer to where she woman was still hiding in the shadows.

"You're Bruce Wayne?" The woman they all figured must be Karen Jennings said, finally walking into the center of the room where the sunlight coming in through the faded curtains illuminated her face.

Using his good arm, Alfred scrambled to pick up the gun and warned her, "That's far enough! Drop the knife."

"Alfred." Bird cleared her throat, "She doesn't have a knife."

"Well, she's got something, hasn't she?" He remarked, "Just drop it, right now."

"I can't!" She quickly said, before slowly raising her left arm and showing that instead of a human hand she had a reptilian like attachment with large, razor sharp claws.

Finally seeing what Bird had clearly noticed before them, Alfred slowly lowered his gun and Karen avoided the shocked and horrified expressions on their faces.

"Listen to me-" Karen started to say as she stepped closer, but didn't get to say much else as Alfred yelled, "That is far enough!"

"Alfred!" Bruce hissed.  
He didn't see Karen as a threat and either way, they were there to get information from her and being rude wasn't going to get them anywhere.

"Well, look around you, Master Bruce. Listen, I've no idea what you are, but whatever that thing is... it's bloody dangerous." He hastily explained his reasoning for being so on guard.

Not only did he still have blood rolling off of his hand and onto the floor, but there were deep scratch marks all over the room and shredded furniture.

One quick move from Karen and she could gut any of them within a matter of seconds.

"Karen Jennings?" Bird guessed, as she began to step closer.

"Careful, Lady Wayne." Alfred cautioned.

With a sigh of annoyance, Bird ignored him, and said, "I'm Bird. My brother and I just have things we'd like to ask you."

"How did you find me?" Karen questioned the trio.

"Our father, Thomas Wayne, came here a week before he died. He had your address in his calendar." Bruce answered.

"His calendar?" She repeated back with a hopeless laugh as her eyes drifted up to the ceiling, "Great!"

"Were you followed?" Karen demanded to know, walking up to just in front of Bird.

"No." Bruce was the first to answer, "I-I don't know… by who?"

"No, no we weren't followed." Alfred said.

Seeing the lack of confidence on Karen's face, Bird assured her, "No one followed us. Believe me, I'd know if they did."

"Good." Karen replied with an arched brow, "Then you can leave."

With that she knelt down and opened the door on her wood stove to add some more wood to the fire that was keeping the house warm.

"Yeah, I don't think so." Bird asserted, "We've come all this way to speak to you. Now, I'm on fully on board with having an adult conversation minus the guns and claws, but I'm not above using violence to get what I want, so we can either do this the hard way or the easy way. Up to you."

With a chuckle under her breath, Karen used her claws to move the wood around in the flames and thought to herself how Bird was every bit as stubborn and strong willed as Thomas had described her.

"What's Pinewood Farms?" Bird started her line of questioning.

"We know our father came to talk to you about it. We're not leaving until we have our answers." Bruce agreed with his sister -though he wasn't going to threaten her the way that Bird had.

"Do you not understand?" Karen asked standing to her feet and speaking with sincerity in her eyes, "These people will kill you."

"Don't you think I've been trying to tell him that?" Alfred muttered.

"I'm not afraid to die." Bruce spoke for himself, "Not if it means doing the right thing."

"Yeah?" Karen scoffed, "How'd that work out for your dad."

Anger flashed through Bird's eyes and Karen diverted her gaze away from the pain on Bruce's face.  
The last thing she wanted to do was upset them after everything they'd already gone through, but Thomas had been good to her and she didn't want to see his children meet the same fate as their parents.

"You have to go." She repeated, "It's not safe for you here."

"I can take care of myself." Bird argued with her.

"You think that." Karen half-smiled, "But you don't know what you're dealing with."

"We understand the dangers." Bruce promised, his words sounding wise beyond his years, "But whatever my father was investigating got him and my mom killed. You're the first lead we have. The first person I've found who might know why."

"Please." He pleaded, "You have to tell me what he was doing."

Karen could see how serious Bird and Bruce were, they were wearing nearly identical expressions of determination, while Alfred looked like this was the last place on earth he'd choose to be.

Letting out a small sigh, she nodded for them to follow her as she led them through the cabin to an enclosed porch area where she showed them to a picnic table before disappearing back into the house for a few moments to return with a first aide kit.

When she offered it up, Bird was the first to make a move, taking it from her without hesitation.

Alfred was clearly horrified by the sight of her hand and made no qualms about hiding it.

Bruce, try as he might to be polite and kind, couldn't stop his eyes from continually going back to the sight of her claws.

The only one who wasn't actively looking at her like she was a monster was Bird.  
She couldn't remember the last time someone had barely given a glance to her deformed hand and then was able to carry on without constant staring.

In fact, the only other person she could remember reacting like that was Thomas Wayne.

"Sorry about your hand." She apologized, leaning against one of the wooden support beams on the porch and watching as Alfred pushed Bird's hands away and insisted on bandaging himself up, "I don't get many visitors. You spooked me."

"Well, uh… we, we -spooked you?" Alfred couldn't bite his tongue at her comment.

This woman had lunged at him from the shadows and sliced him open with claws for god-sake and yet she was claiming to have been spooked.

"How long have you lived here?" Bruce questioned, closing his eyes when he was unable to stop himself from staring at the scaly skin and claws of her left hand.

"Ten years. Ever since Pinewood." She openly answered.

"Is that where you got… that?" He asked, motioning towards her.

"Pinewood Farms was a bio-engineering program at Wayne Enterprises. The kind that was kept off the books. I was one of their first volunteers."

"What, you volunteered for that, did you?" Alfred asked. Still wrapping up his injured hand.

"Alfred, enough!" Bird spoke in the tone of a parent scolding a child, which heavily caught him off guard.

"I was at Blackgate. I didn't exactly have many options at the time-" Karen tried to finish what she was saying, but again Alfred had to comment on it.

"Blackgate? Nice. Take it you weren't a guard then?"

"I was born with a crippled arm." Karen's voice raised, "Growing up, my father liked two things: booze and beating his deformed daughter. One night, I fought back. He fell down the stairs and broke his neck. I went to prison for murder."

"But that's self-defense." Bruce argued.

"People are scared of different." She shrugged, doing her best to pretend that her past didn't still have a noose around her neck slowly cutting off her air every time she let herself think back, "Jury sent me away and then one day these men show up. Tell me they're gonna fix my arm -not just fix it, but make it better."

"Instead they turned you into some kind of science experiment?" Bird's eyebrows lowered.

"They turned me into the monster everybody thought I already was." Karen reiterated.

"Did my father know what was going on at Pinewood Farms?" Bruce's voice was a little unsteady.  
Asking a question he wasn't sure he wanted the answer to.

Karen vehemently denied it.  
Swore that the second Thomas knew was going on he'd shut the program down and had even paid for everyone to go into hiding.

"How many people were there?" Bird questioned, eyeing her closely as she spoke.

"I don't know." Karen's eyes locked with hers, "But I know most didn't survive the experiments."

Bird could only think of one reason that her father would have met with Karen again not long before her was killed. It had to have something to do with the experiments that happened all those years ago.

Her suspicions were voiced out loud by Bruce when he asked, "It started up again, didn't it? That's why my father came to see you after all those years."

"He wasn't sure, but... he had his suspicions. He came to warn me." Karen explained.

"Whoever was running Pinewood, whoever started it up again, I know that's who killed my parents-" Bruce started on, but Bird interrupted and asked, "Do you know who it was? Can you remember any names?

"None of them ever used their names around us." Karen spoke in an apologetic tone, "But the man who was in charge... I can still see his face. Every time I close my eyes."

"Then you need to take us there. You need to take us to Pinewood Farms." Bruce stood to his feet from where he'd been sitting at the picnic table.

Karen dryly laughed in response.  
Bruce had asked her to take them back to the scene of the crime as if it were a perfectly reasonable request.

"My father risked his life to save you. I'm asking you to repay that favor." Bruce stepped closer as he spoke. He could see the fear in her eyes and he knew she was scared, "I promise... nothing will happen to you."

Bird looked over at her brother with disappointment in her eyes, knowing that you can't ever really make a promise like that and if something happened to her it would burn away at him like acid.

With a small sigh, she walked over to one of the large windows and looked out to the thick woods behind the house.

She believed most of what Karen was telling them, but something still didn't feel right.  
Like she was trying to read a book with pages torn out.

"You remind me of him, you know?"

Turning around, Bird faced Karen and then glanced over to where her brother and Alfred were still sitting at the table while he tried to help their butler secure the bandages over his hand.

"Of my father?" Bird smiled and shook her head, "No. Bruce is the one who takes after him. Not me."

Karen managed a smile as she looked at the younger woman.

Bird might not have seen the likeness she shared with Thomas Wayne, but as someone who'd gotten to know him very well over the years, Karen could see it.

Bruce might have had his manners and charm and the determination to do right -no matter the personal cost, but Bird had inherited his understanding.  
She saw things very differently than most people did.

She could see it very clearly on Bruce's face when he'd promised that nothing would happen to her, it was clear to see he whole-heartedly believed it.  
There was such an innocence in how he viewed the world. Even for all of the pain he'd endured, it still seemed to shock him at the amount of cruelness that existed.

"Do you have somewhere else to go?" Bird asked, "We weren't followed here, but there is a chance that someone could be keeping eyes on Pinewood. I'm not sure it's going to be safe for you to come back here afterwards."

There it was.  
Concern in her eyes much the same way she had seen in Thomas' eyes before.

Karen's gaze fell to the floor and she blinked back the tears stinging at her own eyes now.

This might have been her first time meeting Bird, but in many way she felt like she already knew her.

•••

"This doesn't exactly scream 'top secret bio-engineering lab' does it?" Alfred remarked as he pulled the car to a stop a looked in the rear-view mirror where Karen was seated next to Bird in the backseat of the car.

"This is it." Karen breathed with a chill crawling down her spine as she looked at the run down building.

"I don't like it." Bird commented.  
It looked like it could have been an old mental health treatment center or even a nursing home at some point.

"Right, well, you lot stay here. Sit tight and I'll…" Alfred's voice trailed off as Karen, Bird and Bruce and all exited the car as if they hadn't heard him.

Shutting the car engine off, he readied his gun and started after them, wondering why he eve puts in the effort of trying to talk Bruce out of something when he was clearly going to do what he wants.

"I'd wager nothings been touched in here for a decade." Alfred said as they stepped up onto the fourth floor landing after climbing several flights of stairs.

The hallways were littered with old wheelchairs laying on their sides and random sheets of papers strewn all over the place.

A few of the rooms had dentist chairs in them with spider webs stretched up to the swiveling lights from above and nearly ever surface was coated with a few inches of dust.

Alfred leaned down and looked at one of the wheelchairs sitting upright that had a pair of rusted handcuffs hooked to one chair arm and the other cuff had been snapped open leaving jagged metal ends behind.

Hearing ragged breathing, Bird looked over to where Karen was standing and staring off down the hallway as she held her reptilian clawed hand to her stomach.

"Karen?" Bird questioned at the same time Bruce asked, "Are you okay?"

"Just…" She sniffled as she turned back to face them, "Just seeing all of this. Feels like yesterday that I was here and…" With a shrug she tried to focus on the faces of the people with her and not the haunting remnants of the facility she'd been held in and experimented on.

"I'm sorry, looks like your father was wrong. Maybe it's for the best. Now you can move on." Her voice shook and she nervously kept wiping at her nose with the back of her good hand.

"You knew this place was shut down, didn't you?" Bruce accused, "Is that why you brought us here? Hoping I'd give up?"

"Steady now, Master Bruce." Alfred spoke up.

"No, she's hiding something. I can see it in her eyes." He was quick to argue.

"Of course she's hiding something." Bird agreed, "She's been holding something back this whole time, but I think we should go somewhere else to talk about it."

Crossing her arms over her chest she looked around. The building had her feeling on edge.

It was as if the pain that had been endured in Pinewood Farms was still there.  
Screams echoing off the walls and cries for help etched into lines the ceiling.

"I don't understand. What won't you tell me?" Bruce pushed.

"Hey, private property. I'm going to call the cops!" A security guard yelled as he shined the beam from his flashlight in their direction.

"Karen Jennings?"  
Another voice boomed from down a separate hallway.  
"The girl comes with us and no one gets hurt!"

Bird's eyes darted between the security guard who was now on his phone and the two armed men who'd just stepped off the stairs.

"Go!" She yelled, motioning to the doorway behind where Alfred was standing.

In a scrambled run, the group of four took off running.  
They needed to get away from the men there looking for Karen and also get out of sight before the police showed up.

Alfred made sure everyone else was in front of him before he stopped to throw a couple of chairs into the hallway path to slow the men pursuing them and then ran as fast as he could after Bruce as he yelled at them, "Run!"

By the time they'd made it down a back flight of stairs, Bruce was in front with Alfred right behind him and Bird just steps behind him while Karen was bringing up the rear of the group.

Exactly how she wanted it.

She waited until the trio in front of her was nearing the exit of the building before she slowed to a stop and turned around to wait on the men who'd been chasing them.

The running steps echoing off the walls grew closer and she tugged the sleeve of her coat up, just as the first one rounded the corner into the room she swiped her hand through the air -effortlessly ripping his throat open in one quick movement.

Her eyes traveled from the blood spattered on the wall and then down to the now lifeless corpse, before she looked over her shoulder to see Bird was still there.

With a gasp, Karen's eyes widened as Bruce ran back into the room and nearly tripped over his own feet as he came to a stop and stared at the dead body.

When he slowly raised his gaze to look at Karen, her face twisted up and she breathed, "I…"

"We have to get out of here." Bird interrupted, grabbing onto Karen's arm and pulled her away from the man she'd killed.  
Pushing the woman towards her brother, she ordered, "Get her out of here."

"Lady Wayne!" Alfred yelled when he ran back into the room just in time to see an armed man down the hallway with his gun pointed in their direction.

Bird wasted no time dropping to the floor and picking up the gun that the other man had dropped when he'd been killed, within a matter of seconds Bird and Alfred both had fired several shots down the hallway and killed the man before he had a chance to fire at them.

"Alright, there?" Alfred questioned, finally able to pull in a breath as he offered a hand to where Bird was still sitting on the floor.

With a silent look, she grabbed onto his hand and let him help her to her feet before they rushed for the exit.

But just as they'd joined Karen and Bruce outside, the parking lot had filled with police cars.

"Drop the gun, now!" One of the officers shouted as he took shelter behind the open car door and pointed his weapon at the group.

"Hands up!"  
Another voice echoed from further back.

Bird and Alfred both laid the guns they'd just fired on the cement by their feet and the whole group of four did as they were told and raised their hands up in the air.

"What the…" The officer who'd yelled at them to drop their weapons said under his breath when he saw Karen's deformed and clawed hand.

"It's okay." Bird quietly said as she glanced over at her brother.

Bruce looked back at her with an unsure expression as the police officers moved in to surround them.

His eyes dropped to where one of the officers kicked Bird's gun away from her and started to place her under arrest.

"Starling…" His voice trembled when another officer started to pull his arms down and behind his back to handcuff him.

"It's okay." Bird repeated, looking over her shoulder to him as they started to take her towards one of the patrol cars, "Whoever gets a phone call first needs to call Jim, okay?"

All Bruce could manage was a small nod to let her know he'd heard and understood what she was telling him.

•••

Jim was winded by the time he'd reached the police station.

Minutes ago he'd received a near frantic call from Bruce saying that he, Bird and Alfred had all been arrested.

He'd told the fast talking teen to slow down and repeat that.  
He was sure he'd heard him wrong, but after a few deep breathes, Bruce was able to further explain that they were following up on a lead they got on his parent's murders and that it was a long story, but currently they were all three under arrest -along with a woman named Karen.

Coming to a stop just inside of the doors to the precinct, Jim leaned forward some and pulled in a deep breath as he visually scanned the station for them or even for Bullock so he could find out what the hell was going on.

It was then that he caught sight of Bullock unlocking one of the holding cells and started over towards him.

"Bout bloody time, mate." Alfred grumbled as the cell was unlocked.

"Not my call. Why don't the two of you stop getting arrested so much." Bullock argued pointing the cell keys back at him.

"Bird!" Jim called out as he saw her step out from behind Alfred, out of the cell.

"Jim, hey." She said as he walked over to them.

"Are you okay?" He questioned, looking her over.

Instead of an answer, all he got from her was an unreadable expression as saw a dark bruise on the side of forehead around some skin that had been split open.  
A wound she knew he didn't have the day before.

"Are you okay?" She repeated back to him.

"I'm fine." Alfred cut in, "Thanks for asking."

With a small sigh and not wanting to get into how he'd come by his own injury that day, Jim questioned, "Where's Bruce?"

"In with Barnes." Bullock answered.

Right on cue, Barnes' voice rang out about the chatter in the station, "Bullock!"

Coming down the stairs from the captains office with Bruce right behind him, Bullock instructed, "Prep Jennings for transport. I want her at Blackgate today; no contact."  
Slowing to a stop he pointed at Alfred and Bird, "You. You're both free to go, I suggest you do so before I change my mind."

"What did you tell him?" Bird whisper-yelled at her brother as he came to join them.

"The truth." Bruce admitted, "He didn't seem to like it."

"Alright…" Jim breathed, "How about you tell me."

"Somewhere else, then?" Alfred questioned but it sounded more like an instruction, "Without all these ears around."

"Sounds good." Jim agreed, glancing over at Bird as her gaze lingered on the stairs where Barnes' had been moments before.

He wasn't sure what was happening, but he could see there was something on her mind and from the sounds of it, she and Alfred were lucky the captain was willing to let them walk.

"Come on." Jim spoke up to her get attention, before placing a hand on her lower back and leading her towards the door.

Bruce and Alfred didn't miss the placement of his hand or her willingness to go with him.

•••

They decided on a small diner a few streets over to get out of the cold and discuss everything that had happened that day.

Once the waitress had taken their order and walked away, Bruce and Alfred both stared at Jim and Bird sitting beside each other in the booth bench across the table from them.

"What?" Bird questioned as her eyes drifted up to them,

"Nothing at all." Alfred blew out a breath and managed a smile.

With a small shrug, Bruce looked down to the menu though he couldn't help but wonder what exactly was going on between his sister and the detective.  
Especially since Bird had just ordered for herself and Jim.

Apparently they'd been spending so much time together that she knew what food he was going to order.

While they waited on their food to be prepared and brought to their table, Bruce took the lead in explaining the events of that day to Jim.

Starting with finding Karen's name and address in his dad's calender and explaining all the way up to the point the group had been arrested.

Easily following along with the story, Jim took a drink of his coffee and asked, "So your father found out about this program, where Karen Jennings was a subject, and shut it down?"

"Yeah." Bird nodded.

"When it was restarted, he tried to stop it... and they had him killed." Bruce continued.

"And you think Karen can identify the men involved?" Jim asked the table.

"Doesn't know their names. Says she can remember their faces, though." Alfred seized the opportunity to chime in.

Jim slowly nodded his head for a while before he turned his head and looked to Bird, "Why didn't you tell me about this?"

"I didn't know about Karen until last night." She defended before her eyes flashed darker and she questioned, "Why didn't you tell me that the reason you didn't return to the GCPD is because you're investigating what happened to my parents?"

Alfred's eyebrows raised and he watched them over the brim of his coffee cup while he took a drink.

With a sigh, Jim held back on trying to explain how he'd been meaning to tell her but the time never seemed right and instead asked, "How long have you known?"

"A while." She stated, her tone a little sharp, "Probably about as long as you've been roughing people up on the streets asking questions."

With her head cocked to one side she asked, "You really thought I wouldn't find out?"

Bruce glanced over at Alfred, before he picked up his glass of orange juice and took a sip while feeling more uncomfortable by the second.

"I wasn't trying to hide it from you." Jim's eyes narrowed, "If you've known all this time, why didn't you say anything?"

"I was waiting for you to tell me-"

"So…" Alfred cleared his throat, "Have you uncovered anything helpful in your investigation you've been conducting, then?"

"The man who contracted Matches Malone called himself; The Philosopher. And I'd be willing to bet that this is the same man who's behind Pinewood." Jim admitted to them.

"How long have you known about this?" Bird asked, her face twisting up as she scooted away from him, closer to the wall and turned some in the booth.

"I only found out today." He was quick to say, trying to minimize the pain she now seemed to be in.

Not wanting to tell her the entire reason he didn't return to the GCPD was one thing, but actually finding out information that huge and keeping it from her was something else entirely.

It stung.

"Were you-were you even going to tell me?" Bird stammered, her side and back colliding again with the wall when she tried to move further away but didn't have anywhere to go.

"Hey…" Jim breathed, his hand finding hers as she pushed on the cushion between them in her attempt to put distance between them, "Of course I was."

Looking down to where he held her hand in his, Bird's breathing slowed a little but she was still eyeing him skeptically.

"I tracked down this woman known as The Lady, she used to run an illegal casino and ran an organization of assassins -a fixer for hired murders. She was at this club called Artemis today, that's when I got the information." Jim hoped his words would ease her mind and that she'd stop looking at him as if he'd just pulled a knife and stabbed her, "Literally minutes before Bruce called me."

But it seemed his efforts were futile, what he'd hoped would calm her down seem to have the adverse effect.

"Artemis?" Bird repeated back the club name.

"Yeah." Jim nodded.

Pulling her hand from his grip, Bird turned back in her seat and took a drink of her coffee before clearing her throat.

"Well." She breathed, "Your story checked out until then. You can't into the Artemis. You've got the wrong parts, Jim. It's a woman's only private club."

Bruce nearly choked on the drink he was trying to swallow and Alfred's eyes went a little wide.

"Forget it." She dismissed.  
Leaving Jim feeling like he was now sharing a booth bench with a block of ice instead of a person.

"What are we doing now?" She directed her question and her gaze to the rest of the table.

"Have Lucius Fox put together the files of all the scientists who have worked for Wayne Enterprises over the past fifteen years. If Karen can pick this man out, if he is The Philosopher, we can tie him to your parents' murder." Jim answered even though he was all too aware she wasn't asking him.

"Assuming, of course, that Karen Jennings is still alive. I mean, it's obvious these guys mean business. She's gonna be dead the minute she hits Blackgate Prison." Alfred practically stole the words from Bird's mouth.

"That's why we're gonna break her out." Jim reasoned.

"No." Bird cut in, "That's why we have to stop her from getting to Blackgate in the first place."

Nodding, Jim's eyes lit up as he formed a plan.

"How much money can you put together quickly?" He asked, looking between Bird and Bruce.

Bird gave him a questioning look, but Bruce was at the ready as he asked, "How much do you need?"

•••

Bird peeked around from the side of the car that she and Jim were staying out of sight from the road by.

"Where are they?" Bird whisper-yelled as another gust of wind blew threw the street and carried a few hand fulls of cash along with it, "If they come through any later there isn't going to be any money left in the bag."

Jim's idea had been to leave a bag of money in the middle of the road.

There wasn't much that would make the driver of a prisoner transport vehicle stop, but he was sure that a fortune sitting in the middle of the road would be reason enough.

Then once the driver was out of the car, they'd all make their move.  
Knock the officer in the back of the truck out and offer the driver a choice of taking the money or ending up like their partner.

"I'm going to check on Bruce." Bird started to say as she readjusted the black ski mask she currently had pushed up on her forehead waiting until the prisoner transport truck came through, then she'd pull it the rest of the way over her face to shield her identity.

"Wait." Jim said as he stopped her. "You're right. I didn't tell you the entire truth about today."

Bird bit down on the side of her tongue to keep from saying some of the remarks that immediately popped into her head.

She didn't want to fight with him and most of all she just wanted the truth.

"I did track The Lady to Artemis, but I couldn't get inside." With a half smile he repeated her earlier comment, "Turns out I've got the wrong parts."

Bird did her best to keep from smiling, but her dimples gave her expression away.

His own expression turned from lighthearted to one of uncertainty, he wasn't sure how well she was going to react to the next thing he had to say.

"Barbara was there." Jim admitted, "She's the one who got the information about The Philosopher."

"I see." Bird said.  
Leaving Jim unsure of how she was now feeling.

"Why didn't you just tell me that?" She pushed.

"Because she's taken enough from me already." It took him a little while to answer, but when he did she knew it was the whole truth.

"I understand." Bird agreed, not needing or forcing him to go into further detail.

She knew Barbara was obsessed with him and willing to kill to keep him to herself.  
Truth be told, she knew Barbara was the 'if I can't have them then no one can' type long before Jim knew it himself.

It wasn't as if she'd entered into their relationship baggage free either and Barbara Kean didn't scare her.

Even though her words would lead him to believe everything was fine, the expression on her face said otherwise.

She was staring forward with her face scrunched up and lips puckered out some like she had something to say, but wasn't forming the right words.

"Bird-"  
He started to ask.

"You have to be honest with me." She finally said, "You know I don't trust easily, but I do trust you and in order for me to keep doing so… we can't have secrets, Jim."

"I know-"

"It's all or nothing." Bird shrugged as if she wouldn't be affected by the answer.

"It's all, okay?" Jim's voice lowered, his face moved in closer to hers, "I'm all in."

"Me too." She managed to say back just before his lips collided with hers.  
His hand that wasn't holding the shotgun, moved down her side and around to her back as he held her close against him.

With the rough feeling of the stubble from his unshaven face under her fingertips, she smiled against his mouth before she broke the kiss long enough to pull the ski mask on his head down over his face when she heard sound of the approaching prisoner transport vehicle.

Pressing another quick kiss to his lips through the mouth cutout of the mask, she smiled, "Showtime."

Reaching up she pulled her own mask down and waited as the truck slowed a stop so they could make their move.

Once the driver was out of the truck and on her way towards the bag of money in the street, Jim slipped out of their hiding spot and ran for the back of the truck.

Pulling in a breath of the icy evening air, Bird shook her head at herself, still not entirely sure why'd she'd gotten so upset with him that day.

Or maybe she did know and just didn't want to admit it.

Most of her distrust in people stemmed from all of her own secrets. She knew the volume of things one could hide and she knew it made her hypocrite to be demanding a hundred percent honesty from someone when she wasn't able to give it back.

She'd spent so long trying to hide the worst parts of herself from her family and then tried to hide them from Harvey Dent as well.  
At the end of the day, the truth came out. It always does.

Now here she was, hiding the truth of what had really happened to Lilith Wayne from everyone.  
Holding in the secret of being responsible for her own natural mother's death.

It was enough to make her hate Lily all over again.

Here she was in a relationship with someone who really knew her. Someone she didn't have to hide her worst sides from because he'd already seen them.

Bird should have been feeling like gravity didn't exist and she was walking on the moon, but instead she felt like she had one foot six underground buried alongside her mother.

Staying out of sight from the officer who'd jumped out to pick up the bag of money, Jim counted the knocks in his head of the signal officers would use and knocked on the back doors of the transport truck.

Hearing the locks click, Jim looked over to see Bird was still where they'd been standing and not with him like she was supposed to be.

Ducking around the side of the truck, he closed his eyes and focused on the sounds of the officer stepping down out of the truck. He was just about to peek around the side and see which was the man was facing, but he heard a thud on the ground and looked to see Bird standing next to the now unconscious body of the officer.

With his head cocked to the side he gave her a questioning look.

"I told you I've got your back." She said as if she hadn't just shown up at the lost possible second.

"Yo, Marty, you're never gonna believe it!" The female officer yelled as she ran towards the back of the truck with the duffel bag full of cash in hand.

She came to a stop when she saw her partner laid out on the ground.

"Marty?" She called out, her voice cracking with emotion.

"He's fine." Bird said as she and Jim had made it around the truck to sneak up behind the officer, "Just napping."

She started to turn around until she heard the sound of a shotgun being cocked.

"You have a decision to make." Jim yelled with the gun pointed at her head, "You can keep the money, toss your gun and tell your supervisor you were disarmed. Or you can be a hero and wake up like your friend here with nothing to show for it aside from a massive headache."

Alfred and Bruce came running from the other side of the street, both of their faces covered in ski masks as well with the butler in front now holding a gun in the officers face.

"I'd say it's a bit of a no-brainer, wouldn't you, sweetheart?" Alfred asked, "Now give me your gun."

When she handed the weapon over and stepped away, Alfred ran for the front of the truck to drive them away and Bruce got the handcuff keys off the downed officer's belt before climbing up in the back of the truck followed by Bird and then Jim, still holding the shotgun as he called out, "Enjoy your cash." Just before pulled the doors closed to the truck.

Hearing the back doors slam shut, Alfred quickly sped away from the scene.

Karen moved away from the three masked figures who'd just entered the back of the transport truck with her, though being chained down she didn't have much room to work with.

She'd known her time was running out, but she'd expected someone to jump her at Blackgate, not hijack the car on the way there.

"It's alright." Bird said as she pulled her mask off.

Letting out a heaving sigh of relief, Karen dropped back against the side of the truck and felt the rest of her body go limp from the tension she'd been holding.

"What is going on?" She asked as she saw Bruce remove his mask, followed by a man she didn't recognize, "Who is this?"

"He's a friend." Bruce explained.

"Nice to meet you." Jim commented as he sat down next to Bird on the built in seating across from Karen as Bruce unlocked her chains.

"He's gonna help us get you out of town. We have a car, cash and a new identity waiting for you back at Wayne Manor." Bruce excitedly explained to her.

"I can't believe you would do this for me." Karen smiled.  
She hadn't known much kindness in her life. The most she'd witnessed had been from Thomas Wayne and now his children were being just as good to her as he'd been.

"I made a promise nothing would happen to you. I intend to keep it." Bruce smiled, feeling like everything was going to be okay. Like things were all going to work out.

"Karen?" Jim asked, "Do you know a man who goes by the nickname The Philosopher?"

"That's, uh, the man who ran the program. That's what the others called him. Something about some game they played." She explained.

"And if you saw a picture of him, you'd be able to identify him?" Bird asked.

"Yeah."

"Good." Bruce's smile grew, "We have someone tracking down the files of all the scientists who have worked for Wayne Enterprises over the years. After that, you, you can disappear. No one will ever hurt you again."

"You both remind me of Thomas so much. You sound just like him." Karen wiped away the tear that was making it's way down her cheek, "I have been hiding something from you. Your father did more than just rescue me from Pinewood."

"What, what do you, what do you mean?" Bruce questioned.

"After what happened, I was so angry; but he never gave up on me. He kept visiting. Gave me books to read. A music box for my birthday. He kept reminding me that I wasn't alone. That I wasn't a monster. I never knew what a real father should be until Thomas Wayne. That's why I didn't want you to pursue this. I didn't want you to see him differently. Your father started Pinewood, Bruce. His intentions were good. But the man in charge took advantage of him. He didn't realize the truth until it was too late. Pinewood was his burden. But it doesn't have to be yours."

"It's not a burden. It's who I am." Bruce finally answered, his voice confident and strong.

Karen looked over to Bird who was staring down to the floor. Blinking back more tears, Karen reached out with her good hand and took hold of Bird's as she said, "Your father talked so much about you."

"About me?" Bird started to dismissively shake her head, but Karen continued, "I know I've only just met you today, but I feel like I've known you for years."

Looking to Bruce and then back to Bird, she couldn't stop the tears spilling from her eyes as she spoke, "I'm so sorry that he's not here. He should have been. Your father was a great man. But I'm glad I got to meet you both."

•••

* * *

 **A/N - Thank you all for reading!**

 **In case anyone didn't hear, the rest of Gotham season 4 is gonna start airing on March 1** **st.**

 **I'd like to thank: Shadow knight1121, Munyue, PetrovaLover, chodofaggins, SmellYourScentForMiles, Love. Fiction. 2018, Amelia, DancingDorisDay, SusieQ, BIM1FAN, xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, Katniss789, ertrit, and the guests who reviewed since my last update!**

 **I can't believe I'm closing in on the end of season 2 here! I'll more than likely be starting season 3 as a new story just like I did with this for s2.**


	29. Better Man

**XXIX**

" _Better never means better for everyone... It always means worse, for some." - Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale_

* * *

•••

"Are you okay?" Jim asked as he helped Bird up from the floor of the prisoner transportation truck.

"I'm fine." She answered, rubbing the shoulder she'd landed on when the truck had slid on a patch of ice across the road before slamming against the cement structure holding up the overpass above.

Bird looked over to her brother and to Karen, who both nodded that they were also okay after the accident..

"You're bleeding." She frowned upon seeing blood running down the side of Bruce's face from where he'd hit his head during the wreck and the skin under his eye had busted open.

"I'm fine." He dismissed, "What happened?"

Taking the lead since he was the one armed, Jim opened the doors of the truck and jumped out.

He wasn't sure what he'd expected to see, but he sure as hell wasn't expecting to see Victor Fries alive and well.

The man that the papers had nicknamed Mr. Freeze was dead. Had been for quite some time, yet now here he stood.

Following behind Jim, Bird stuck her arm out to keep her brother and Karen back out of harms way.

"Is that…" She questioned, her face scrunching up.

"Yeah." Jim nodded, not taking his eyes off of Victor Fries.

"Victor." Jim yelled, "Put down the gun!"

"You." Victor remarked with a smirk.  
He'd been sent on a mission to kill Karen Jennings and anyone who got in his way; he hadn't expected one of those people to be Jim Gordon.

Not heeding the warning, he started to walk closer to the group and Jim fired a shot, only to see the bullet bounce off of the metal suit he was wearing.

His eyebrows lowered, but he barely hesitated before firing a few more shots, though it did little to slow Victor's advancement.

Alfred made his way around the side of the truck, immediately pulling his own gun and opening fire on the approaching threat.

Feeling a hand on her arm, Bird looked back expecting it to be her brother but instead it was Karen.

"Go." She said, fighting to keep her tears from spilling, "Get out of here, it's me he's here for."

"No." Bird argued.

Hearing the conversation, Bruce turned away from where Alfred had been checking on how badly he was wounded.

"Karen, no." He agreed, "We're not leaving without you."

Her eyes glistened in the glow from the streetlights above as her eyes darted back and forth between the siblings faces.

"I'm so glad I got to meet you both." She managed a smile and to somehow keep her voice steady despite her quivering chin, "Your dad would be so proud of you. Of the people you've grown up to be. I just know it."

With that she pulled Bird into a hug, catching her off guard before turning and wrapping her arms around with Bruce.  
Stepping back, she took one last look at his face and pulled in a deep breath. Not waiting any longer and risk the chance at losing her nerve, Karen took off running past where they were standing.

"Karen, no!" Bruce yelled, starting to run after her.  
But it was too late.

She'd made her decision and it was clear that Mr. Freeze was ready and willing to hurt or kill anyone that got in his way of getting to Karen.

"Stay here!" Alfred yelled just barely catching enough fabric of his coat to hold him in place.

Once she was in front of him, Victor raised his freeze gun and blasted her with a stream bright blue liquid that immediately turned to ice and froze her completely solid.

Bird stared at the horrific scene in front of her with wide eyes.

She'd of course read the stories in the paper and saw news coverage of his crimes months ago, but seeing a once living person frozen completely solid right in front of her within just a handful of seconds was something entirely different.

She'd never seen anything like that before.

The sounds of the night faded into nothing.

There wasn't even a car on the overpass above.

No sirens in the distance.

For a few ever fleeting seconds the city seemed to fall mute -until Victor raised the freeze gun in the air and brought it down on the top of Karen's head.

The ice shattered.

It sounded like bits of glass.

Thousands of tiny pieces raining down onto the pavement below.

Bird's mouth hung open, no longer able to breathe.  
The air had been forced right from her lungs.

" **NO!"**

Bruce's scream was so loud it physically hurt Bird's eardrums as she stood beside him.

Jerking from Alfred's grip, Bruce started to charge in Victor's direction.

He didn't have a plan for what he'd do if he made it to him.  
At that point in time he could no longer process a single thought.

He just knew he had do something.  
He'd been the one who'd promised no harm would come to Karen and now she wasn't only dead -she'd been completely obliterated.

"Bruce!" Bird's voice didn't come out near as loud as her brother was still screaming.

Grabbing onto him, she held tightly with every ounce of strength in her body as he fought against her, still frantically screaming out; traumatized from what he'd just witnessed.

The loss as well as Bruce's pain was as fresh and raw as a gaping wound.  
Opened up and bleeding out on display for everyone to see.

There was no room for him to feel anything else, not even a fear for his own life.

Knowing that there wasn't a point in trying to reason with someone in that state, Bird did the best she could to hold him back for his own safety.

From the corner of her eye, she saw Victor pull something from the side of his suit.  
It looked like a type of grenade, filled with the same solution he'd just used to freeze Karen into a human popsicle.

"Move!"  
She was the one who'd shouted, but it sounded like someone else's voice to her ears.

It was only a matter of seconds -but the city seemed to fall into silence again with everything around them happening in slow motion.

The clink of the grenade landing on the pavement.

The rapid beeping as the device drew ever closer to detonating.

And then finally explosion.

So powerful it shook the ground beneath them and bits of ice pierced through the metal of the truck.

They took cover the best they could on the other side of the open doors.  
She was blocking Bruce from the blast with her own body and it wasn't until it was all over that she realized Jim had been doing the same to her.

The group of four stayed still, huddled behind what small bit of protection the truck was offering.  
A tangled mess of limbs as they listened to the heavy footsteps and ice snapping and cracking beneath them.

It was the sound of Victor's boots further crushing down what was left of Karen's frozen and shattered body as he retreated from the scene.

•••

By the time they'd made it back to Wayne Manor a storm was raging outside.

Thunder booming so loud the panes of glass in the windows shook.

Lightening cracking so hard and bright it looked like it was splitting the sky wide open.

Bird sat on the couch beside her brother by the fire place as he stared down to the music box they'd retrieved from Karen's house.

It was made from beautiful dark stained wood.  
The inside was a picturesque winter wonderland.

A gold figurine shaped like a girl with ice skates spun in the center of a white blanket of snow with deep green pine trees placed off to either side.

Bird's eyes moved between where the figurine was stuck in a never ending pirouette as the music played and the glitter that was coating the snow.

It was beautiful.  
No wonder the gift had meant so much to Karen.

"My father risked his life to protect her. He cared for her and now she's dead." Bruce's voice was distorted from the lump in his throat, "Because of me."

Closing the music box, he pushed it onto the coffee table in front of him and titled it up to see the gold plate on the front which was engraved with black bold font, 'To Karen. Happy Birthday, Thomas.' Letting go of the box he swatted at his eyes with the back of his hand.

Bird bit down on the side of her tongue and glanced over to where Jim was sitting next to her at the end of the couch before diverting her gaze back down to the music box.

Deep down she wanted to be comforting big sister Bruce needed in that moment to put an arm around him and tell him this wasn't his fault.

But she couldn't.  
All she could manage to do was sit there with the weight of the day crushing down on her shoulders like thousand pound weights.

"No." Alfred spoke as he sat the tray containing a freshly brewed kettle of tea and a handful of cups down on the table, raising up he argued, "Not because of you Master Bruce, but because of what you're pursuing."

"Is there even a difference?" Bruce questioned, keeping his gaze low and not making eye contact with anyone in the room.

"Yes." Alfred stated. He glanced over to where Bird was sitting before directing his attention back to Bruce and saying, "And if you can't make your peace with that then you're not ready."

"He's right." Bird finally broke her silence, but didn't lift her eyes from the music box.

"There will be others." Alfred spoke to them both.  
He wasn't sure where the path they were on was heading, but he knew there would be casualties along the way.

"Karen was the only one who knew what The Philosopher looked like. How are we going to find him now?" Bruce questioned, getting up from where he'd been sitting he walked over and stared into the flames of the fire place until the light was too much for his eyes.

Alfred crossed his arms behind his back and watched him, but it wasn't long until his line of sight moved to Bird.

There was a darkness in the room now.  
A kind of black hole that opened and swallowed every ounce of light around.

For all of their differences, there was still such a likeness between Bird and Bruce.  
They both felt things so deeply -though Bird was better at hiding it, usually through acting like she didn't care about anything at all.

But they both had the ability to make the entire room shift from their feelings alone.

And right now it was a hopeless feeling, emanating from Bruce and seeming to fill up every corner of the room until there wasn't anything left.

Bird reached up to move the hair from the side of her face, not even realizing the small cuts and scrapes across her cheek and side of her forehead until she's brushed over them and felt the stinging pain from the fresh abrasions.

"We, uh…" Bird breathed with a despondent shrug, "Whoever sent Victor Fries after Karen clearly knows something-"

"Yeah?" Bruce's voice raised as he turned to look at her, "Up until an hour ago we all thought he was dead. He's more than likely going to go right back into where ever he's been hiding. How does that help us at all?"

By the end of his sentence, the anger had faded from his tone and he was fighting back tears again.

He hadn't meant to yell at his sister.  
Not when he was sure that the main reason she was even so deeply involved in all of this was because of him.

Alfred too for that matter.

Of course he knew they both wanted to get to the bottom of what had happened to his parents too, but this had mainly turned into them trying to keep him safe and helping him along the way.

"You need to have faith, Bruce." Jim finally said, eyeing Bird once more before he stood up and approached the younger Wayne.

"I know what you risked today." Bruce faced him with a pained expression, "If Barnes finds out you were involved…" He let his voice and sentence trail off into nothing.  
Knowing the words didn't need to be voiced out loud.

"He will." Jim agreed, "If he hasn't already."  
His gaze fell to the floor briefly before he made eye contact and said aloud what he'd been fearing all along, "Pretty sure my days at the GCPD are over. But I knew that going in."

Bruce looked past where Jim was standing to where his sister was still sitting in the same place; all but closed off to the rest of the room.

"Then why'd you do it?" Bruce questioned as he looked back to him.

"You're not the only one who made a promise." Jim reminded him of the night they'd met.  
The night he'd watched his parents be murdered right in front of him. The same night that had changed everything.

Only Bruce hadn't realized just how much that night had changed everyone else's lives as well.

Everyone's attention was pulled over to the doorway of the room at the sound of approaching footsteps.

"Ah, Mr. Fox." Alfred greeted.

"I let myself in." Lucius stated the obvious, before he explained his urgency, "I think I might have something…"

His voice trailed off as he looked around the room.  
Al four of them had bruises and scrapes on their faces and looked fairly banged up.

"Are you alright?" He questioned.

"What did you find?" Bird replied, blatantly ignoring his question as she didn't have an answer to give him.

Launching into his explanation, Lucius handed over a picture to Bruce,"When I was compiling the personnel files on scientists, I also ran a cross-reference search on Pinewood Farms and The Philosopher and found this." Pointing to the picture he continued, "It's from a company newsletter taken about twelve years ago. The photo lists team nicknames. Look at the man next to your father."

"Hugo Strange."  
Bruce read the name aloud.

"The Philosopher…" Bird followed, reading the nickname listed under his name.

"He runs Arkham now." Jim added.

"Yeah. I know." Bird's jaw tensed, "He wouldn't let me in to visit Oswald when he was there this last time. He, uh… his so called therapy sounded more like torture." Bird continued, "He did a number on him."

"A friend?" Bruce pushed the picture into his sister's hands, pointing to where their father and Strange were standing next to each other, both wearing smiles.

Thomas even had his arm draped around Strange's shoulders.

"Someone he... he trusted?" Bruce said out loud, as if it would make anymore sense than it did in his head, "That's not fair."

His breath felt as though it had turned to smoke, scorching his lungs and throat with every breath he tried to take, "That's not right." His voice was nearly a growl by the time his tongue carved the last syllable.

•••

Reaching the top of the stairs, Jim turned his head when he heard the now familiar tune from the music box coming from a room off to the right.

It was well over an hour ago that Lucius Fox had left and not too long after Bruce had announced he was turning in for the night.

Not long after, Bird had picked up the music box and silently left the room.  
Jim had assumed she'd left to speak privately with her brother, but then the minutes started to pass like hour long chunks of time and he was left alone in an awkward silence with Alfred.

Slowly and as quietly as possible he followed the sound of the music until he reached the doorway to find Bird sitting on her old bed with her back against the wall, staring as the figurine spun in circles among the snow and trees.

The room was done up in dark colors with a stack of CD cases on a desk and even some older band posters on the wall.  
In many ways the room looked stuck in time, like it had barely been touched since Bird lived at home as a teenager.

"Sorry." She quietly said, not looking up from where she was sitting, "I'd planned on coming right back and then…" Letting out a sigh she shrugged and slowly closed the box.

"It's okay." Jim was quick to say, before explaining, "I could only take so much of Alfred's staring."

With a half smile she finally looked up to where he was standing, "He's trying to figure out what's going on between us."

"I noticed." Jim's eyebrows raised.

"He and Bruce both are, but neither of them will just ask." She chuckled and for a moment a smile spread across her lips; for the first time all day she didn't look like she was in pain.

"Why haven't you told them?" He questioned.

"It's no one's business but our own." With a shrug, Bird stated, "And it's not we're hiding it."

True, Jim thought to himself, but it certainly didn't make things feel less awkward during the times when he'd be left alone with Alfred who just stare at him, waiting for an explanation.

Crossing by the dresser, Jim paused when he saw how everything on top was lined up in perfect rows of three.

Turning back to her, he walked over and sat down beside her in the bed, scooting up until he was leaned against the wall beside her.

"You aren't going to ask?" Bird questioned, knowing that by now he'd seen several of her ticks.  
The odd behaviors that she'd do her best to hide from the outside world, like her incessant need to keep her belongings in multiples of three -all perfectly lined up.

"Assumed you'd tell me if you wanted me to know." He vaguely replied.  
He'd asked Alfred about it not too long ago, when he'd been recovering there after he'd been shot by Nygma.

All he'd gotten from the butler was a roundabout answer that just left him more confused.

"I'll tell you anything you want to know." Bird's voice ran dry as she spoke.

"Well…" Jim began, looking over to where she sat at his side, "I want to know."

"It's this thing I've been doing since I was a kid." Bird rubbed her forehead.  
Even though she'd offered up her complete honesty, it was pretty clear that she'd rather be talking about anything else, "One of the orphanages I was in before I got adopted -it was ran out of this creepy old house."

"Whenever I was lucky enough to get my hands on little bottles of soaps or apples or anything. I don't know, I guess since I had so little I was scared of having it taken, so I started lining everything I owned up next to my bed." Bird's tone grew a little hollow as she spoke, "I'd try and stay awake as long as I could and I'd just stare at everything I had in the moonlight. I got to where I was able to tell if anything had been moved -even just the slightest amount."

Jim's brows lowered as he listened to her explanation.  
He remembered Alfred cautioning him against moving the bottles of hand-soap next to the kitchen sink, swearing that Bird would know if anything had been touched.

As much as she tried to leave the earliest years of her childhood behind, the time had left lasting marks on her.  
"You probably saw the inside of a lot of bad places." He reasoned.  
He'd known she'd spent time in foster houses and orphanages before being adopted by the Waynes, but he hadn't really given much thought to the condition of the places she'd been in.

It was often easy to forget that she'd had such a rough start to life after seeing the wealth she'd grown up in after that.  
But the effects of everything she'd gone through still deeply played a part in the person she'd grown into.

Nodding, she remained silent now.  
She couldn't remember everything that had happened back then.  
Luckily, Thomas and Martha had found her and brought her home when she was five years old.

A psychologist once told her that children can't retain memories until around age five, but she knew differently.

Most of what she could remember were trapped in her mind like scenes from an old movie.  
As if she were witnessing the abuses happening to someone else rather than living through it herself.

Hunger pains and the locks on the cabinet doors and refrigerator to keep the hungry children out.

She'd never forget how it felt to be laying in sheets soaked with her own urine because she was too afraid to get out of bed in the middle of the night and just couldn't hold it any longer.

Being afraid to step even a toe out of line and the beatings that seemed to come a daily basis.

She didn't have to say it out loud.  
Jim could read the expression on her face easily enough to know her mind had was reliving things that had happened nearly twenty years ago, but he didn't know what else she was thinking of until she let him in.

"I didn't feel it, you know. Not really." Bird finally said after a long wave of silence rushed over the room, "When my parents were killed."

"You were in shock." Jim remembered her reaction that night.  
It was the very first time they'd crossed paths.

She was coming home late from her job at Fish's club and he was waiting by her apartment door.  
That was two years ago now and neither of them had any way of knowing how intertwined their lives would become from that day forward.

"I wasn't." Bird shook her head, "I know death. I understand it better than I do life."

With her own forehead lining as she realized out loud, "I felt it when I thought you'd killed Oswald back then -and everyone I've lost since, I felt all of it, but not when my parents died."

Try as she might to distance herself from it, she couldn't stop the aching in her chest now.  
It wasn't just from watching Karen die that not or even the weight of knowing the woman had sacrificed herself to keep them safe.

Bird couldn't stop replaying what Karen had told her; of how her dad had spoke so much about her and how Karen hadn't known what having a real father felt like until Thomas Wayne.

"I guess you really don't know what you've got until it's gone."  
Bird's voice wasn't over a whisper; so quiet that Jim couldn't even fully hear what she'd said.

"What?" He asked.

"It's just so screwed up." Bird shook her head, "Thomas and Martha Wayne were the best parents anyone could ask for and all I did was wonder about my birth parents." She admitted, "If I'd only known what disappointments the truth was going to bring back then… I don't know maybe I'd have treated them better or put in some effort to fix things between us before it was too late."

"You're trying now." He reasoned as he slid an arm around her, she leaned against his side, letting her head rest on his shoulder.

"Is this the part where you try and tell me it's not too late to turn my life around?" Bird gave a half-hearted attempt at a joke, "Not too late to make them proud?"

She knew she'd never fully be the person they'd wanted her to grow into, but she'd made some peace with that.  
Some peace with who she was and in her head she imagined that being enough to work with if they'd still been alive.

That maybe if she hadn't been at such a war with herself inside of her own head, that maybe, just maybe, they could have started to accept who she was.

Bruce had dealt with learning her secrets better than she'd expected; though she couldn't help but wonder if that was only because she was about all of the family he had left.

"What I'm saying is that you're trying to get to the bottom of what happened to them." Jim clarified.

Bird nodded her head against his shoulder but didn't verbally answer him.

Jim was right, she was now doing everything she could think of to find out why her parents had been gunned down in ally.  
What he didn't know was the she held a degree of guilt for it taking her so long to fully devote herself to that cause.

With her connections on the streets, she was sure that if she'd started really digging around sooner she'd probably already have the answers now.  
But she just couldn't.

Her eyes slowly closed when she felt him press a kiss to the top of her head.

This was one of the many things she was already loving when it came to being with Jim.  
The way that so much could be expressed without words.

Reaching forward, she opened the music box again and let it play for a few moments before she quietly said, without looking up at him, "Once we find out what we need from Hugo Strange, I'm going to have to kill him. You know that, right?"

Pulling in a deep breath, Jim bit back his knee-jerk response of saying he couldn't let that happen.  
That Professor Strange needed to be arrested and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

They couldn't handle this the way they'd handled Galavan and the way she'd handled Matches Malone.

But he didn't say it out loud.

Today had been an incredibly long and trying day and even though she wasn't saying it out loud, Karen's sacrifice and death hurt had taken a toll.

So far the plan they'd came up with while everyone was still downstairs was that in the morning Jim would go see what information they could get out of Strange.

Approaching him under the ruse of being hired by a client to look into Karen Jennings' death and Strange's involvement in Pinewood Farms.

They needed to know with absolute certainty that Hugo Stranger really had a hand in the Wayne murders before they could plot their next move.  
Jim was sure once he got him face-to-face that he could get that for them.

Neither Wayne had immediately jumped on board with the plan.  
No, they were both ready to storm Arkham Asylum that night and drag him through the streets.

But after some coaxing from Jim and Alfred's repeated insistence that they at least take the night to process everything and approach it with a fresh mind in the morning, they had reluctantly agreed.

•••

"Good morning!"

Bird's eyes widened as she looked up to see the woman who'd greeted her the very second the elevator doors opened.

"Morning…" Bird greeted, sounding unsure of how true the sentiment would ring considering it was her first day on the job.

This couldn't have come at a worse time, but she'd committed herself to seeing this through, to being a part of the company.

Which meant she was supposed to spend the day pretending to care about her new position in Wayne Enterprises, while Jim would be spending his morning questioning Hugo Strange.

After she was off work they were all supposed to meet back up at Wayne Manor to see if he'd uncovered anything.

Pulling in a deep breath, Bird stepped off the elevator and studied the doe eyed woman who'd greeted her.

Despite being more than a few years older than Bird was, the blonde clutching a clipboard to her chest stood a good three inches shorter than her.

"I'm Charmaine." She introduced herself with a slight bounce in her step as she rushed after her new boss who was making a beeline to her office, "I'm your secretary-slash-assistant."

"Oh." Bird came to a stop as she turned to face and admitted, "I didn't know one of those came with the job."

A confused expression fell on the Charmaine's face, clearly unsure of how to respond. She didn't know Bird well enough to decipher if she was joking.

It only took moments for her to grow uncomfortable under Bird's intense stare as she gave her a once over.

Reaching up, she nervously patted the side of her head where her naturally curly blonde hair was pinned back and was just about to ask if everything was okay, but never got the chance when Bird spun on her heels and continued on her journey to her new office which left her secretary scrambling after her.

By the time they'd reached the office, Charmaine was out of breath, not because of the near running walk she'd been in, but because of how unsure the death of Garret Bryne had left her feeling of her own standing within the company.

If she didn't make the right impression on her new boss then she could be out of a job by the end of that day.

"How do you take your coffee?" She questioned, pen at the ready against the fresh sheet of paper on her clipboard to take notes.

"Iced, lately." Bird admitted as she sat her purse down on her desk and turned to face her, "Are you really writing that down?"

"I, uh…" Charmaine let out a nervous chuckle, "My job is make sure you have everything you need to make your job easier."

Walking over to the large office desk, she laid the clipboard down and questioned, "That is if I still have a job?"

"Are you good at what you do?" Bird quickly fired back.

"I am." She asserted, sounding ten times more confident in that answer than she had in anything else she'd said up to that point.

"Then you have nothing to worry about." Bird promised.

Letting out a breath of air so fast it left her lungs feeling like deflated balloons, Bird's shoulders slouched forward, leaving her looking an inch or so shorter than before.

"I wasn't ready for this." Bird admitted to her, "I thought I had more time to properly prepare before taking over this office."

"I'm sure you're going to do fine." Charmaine tried to offer support, "And I'll be here to help you get acclimated to everything."

Seeming to not hear her, Bird walked over to the large windows lining the far wall of the office, opening up the room to a floor-to-ceiling view of the city.

In the reflection of the glass Bird spotted a few people pass the the office and pause to look in before scurrying on their way.

"What are they saying about me?" She questioned, turning to face her secretary once again.

"How great it's going to be having a Wayne back in the company." She smiled widely.

Squinting, Bird shook her head, "Look, Charmaine, I couldn't care less if you remember the way I take my coffee or not. But honesty is something that goes a long way. I have to be able to trust you."

"Of course, Miss Wayne." The blonde nodded before leveling, "This is a well paying position -a position that a lot of people were kissing ass to try and get when Garret considered retiring. They're mad that you're coming in off the street and getting the corner office."  
With a breath to finally break up her sentences, she continued, "Don't let that bring you down. Clearly, they don't know what they're talking about."

"No, they're right." Bird dropped her arms at her sides, "I'm entirely unqualified for this. Handing me this position is a total PR move from the board. It's good for business for them to say a Wayne is now actively involved in the day-to-day operations and as of right now public opinion is on my side, so it makes it look even better for the company."

"Meanwhile-" She sighed and waved an arm toward the door, "Everyone is out there watching and waiting for me to fail. So I have to be good at this. No, I have to be better than good if I'm going to prove them all wrong. I need to be great and in order to do that, I'm going to need your help, are you up for that?"

"Yes-." Charmaine started to say.

"Because I'm going to be honest here. I have a lot of things going on in my personal life that I can't even begin to get into right now." Bird continued, "I need someone one hundred percent committed to this while my attention is split."

"I'm your girl." Charmaine smiled with a confident nod, "Shall we start with going over the itinerary and item list for the silent auction later this week?"

"Yes…" Bird began to say, but was interrupted when there was a knock on the open door and a delivery worker questioned, "Miss Wayne?"

Once he had Bird's attention he walked into the office and sat a large, bright bouquet of flowers on the corner of her desk before bidding her a good day and leaving.

The room stayed in a suspended state of complete silence as she plucked the car from it's holder and opened the small envelope to see who'd sent them.

"Charmaine?" Bird broke the silence, "Why is Fat Lenny sending flowers to the office?"  
Bird questioned after reading the card from a low-level gangster both congratulating her on the new job and saying he was looking forward to doing business with her.

"Garret Bryne was a good man." Charmaine started to say, holding her hands up as she spoke.

"Every time someone says something like that, it's usually right before they unveil a laundry list of reasons proving otherwise." Bird's jaw stayed tense as she waited.

"He, uh…" She spoke while moving in closer, "He used to have a gambling problem a few years back and he ran into some trouble with the wrong people."

"He owed a debt to Lenny's crew?"

"He paid everything off, but the threats kept coming and so he kept paying." Closing her eyes, Charmaine pulled in a deep breath, "From the office funds."

"And so he just assumes I'm going to keep playing ball?" Bird guessed.

"Seems like." Charmaine agreed, "And with the fundraiser next week-"

"No." Bird cut her off, "No deal."

"I'm sorry?" The blonde couldn't begin to hid her shock.

"Send word to Lenny's crew that I'm not giving them a penny." Bird asserted.

"Miss Wayne…"

"He's nothing." Bird dismissed, "A street thug leading a gang of like ten men at the most. He was barely even a blip on Falcone's radar… hell, even Maroni wouldn't have given him the time of day when he was still alive."

Seeing her secretary's nerves start to spike again, Bird said, "Your name doesn't have to be anywhere in this. If Fat Lenny wants to retaliate then I'll deal with it when it happens."

Pulling the leather desk chair out far enough to have a seat behind her desk, Bird shook her head, thinking that she had much bigger concerns at the moment then a low-level thug.

Trying to keep her focus on her new responsibilities, she did her best to offer up a smile at her right hand woman and said, "Let's get started."

•••

"This man ordered my parents' death? You're sure?" Bruce asked, looking down to the photo they'd been given the night before by Lucius Fox.

Jim's eyes cut over to the afternoon sunlight beaming in through the windows on the far side of the room.

"I know he was part of the reason they were killed." Jim answered truthfully.

"Why is he not under arrest?" Bruce demanded to know.

"It's not so simple." Bullock offered up with a shrug.

Jim had brought him onto the case early that morning, fully briefing him before he could even finish his first cup of coffee.

Bruce's face twisted at his words.

Not so simple?  
This was right and wrong.  
Good and evil.

 _It was simple._

"The evidence we have is far too tenuous for a warrant." Jim explained.

"It's ancient hearsay, not fingerprints. Only witness is dead. Barnes wouldn't even say no. He would just look at me like I was nuts." Bullock's voice raised.

He was lucky to even still have a job after the part he played in Jim's Blackgate escape.  
Something he'd do all over again without a second thought, but now this mess with Strange was a disaster waiting to happen.

"Ancient hearsay?" Bird echoed from where she'd been sitting on the couch so quietly that everyone had almost forgotten she was there.

"Yeah." Bullock looked over at her.

"Please." She scoffed under her breath.  
Rising to her feet she reminded the room, "I wanted to take care of this situation last night."

"We didn't know for absolute fact that Strange was responsible until today." Jim reminded her.

"What were you going to do?" Bullock tucked his hands in his pockets, his shoulders slouched, "Just kill the guy because he may or may not have been this Professor character you were searching for?"

"Yes." Bird nodded.

"No." Jim was just as quick to the argument, "You do that and Barnes will find out. You'll go to prison."  
Never mind the fact that it was wrong.

"I doubt that." Bird's dimples showed as she fought back a smile.

"Prison." Bullock repeated, "That would scare most people."

"I'm sick of this." Bruce cut in.  
He could remember a time when he thought taking a life was wrong.  
Just like Jim, he'd believed in the law and justice.

But that felt like ages ago now.  
Back when he naive enough to think that the guilty were the ones punished while the innocent walked free.

That's how it should be, but right and wrong were all twisted and tangled up in one another like a drawer full of cords that seemed impossible to start untangling.  
All he'd seen and all he'd been through left him subscribing to his sister's way of handling things.

"We know where Strange is, we know he's hurting people right now, and you two are talking about politics with your boss and then trying to get a piece of paper signed." Bruce complained, his eyes scanning the room from where Jim and Bullock were standing until his gaze landed on Bird, who was apparently the only other person angry enough over their parent's murders to want and act on it.

For all of his promises to bring the man responsible for their deaths to justice, Jim Gordon seemed too content to just let things be.

"This is the way it works, Bruce." Jim stated.

"Why? You're not a cop anymore." Bruce didn't miss a beat.  
His voice raised and every ounce of disdain he was feeling trickled into his tone, leaving him hoarse.

"Hey!" Bird's voice raised to match her brother's tone, "You don't get to do that. Not after all he's done and risked for this -for you."  
It wasn't that she didn't agree with what he was saying, but it was the disrespectful tone in which he using.

"For you, you mean." Bruce argued with her.  
He was growing more sure than ever that Jim's sudden spike of interest in the case was at least in part because of how close the detective had gotten to his sister.

"Excuse me?" Bird's eyes narrowed.

"Give us a sec?" Jim nodded to Bullock, who now couldn't wait to get out of the room.  
He had enough on his plate already, he didn't need to stand there and listen to three of them bickering back and forth.

Especially when he was sure how it was going to play out; Jim could lecture them both on law and order until he was blue in the face, but ultimately Bird was going to do as she pleased and it looked as if her brother was going to follow the example she'd set.

After all, the law rarely seemed to apply to Gotham's elite.

Jim's eyes lingered on the doorway until Bullock was out of sight and the doors were closed, "Bruce, I know you're frustrated, but we need to do this the right way"

"The right way?" Bruce's eyes narrowed, "And how many times did that fail with Galavan?"

"It's not the same." Jim argued.

He looked over at Bird, hoping that at least for the sake of her brother, that she'd back him up.  
But he could tell from the look on her face that she was still ready to spill some blood.

"He bent and broke the law over and over again, and Strange is doing the same thing. This man killed Karen, maybe my parents." Bruce pointed out, "Look, I-I appreciate everything that you've done for me. But I fear we are going down the same path as before, and we won't get justice unless…"

His voice trailed off and he looked over at his sister.  
Agreeing with her methods of handling these situations still felt less of an evil than saying out loud that they should take justice into their own hands and murder someone.

"Unless what?" Jim questioned and while Bird knew here he was heading, she didn't say anything.

"What you did to Galavan." Bruce answered, "What you knew you had to do, because of the bureaucracy and the red tape."

Jim's face contorted and Bruce stopped walking closer when he saw anger flash through the detective's eyes.

"What I _had_ to do?" Jim turned to better face him, anger putting a strain on his voice, "I chose to kill a man in cold blood, and it was the wrong choice, crossing that line. You'll pay for it over and over again, like I have been. Like I still am."

Pulling in a deep breath, he stepped closer, laying a hand on Bruce's shoulder as he added, "And it will make you more like the evil you're trying to fight. You need to be better. Do you understand me?"

"Just hold out a little bit longer. We'll work on Barnes, get him to sign off on a warrant and put Strange away for good. The right way." He continued.

"Okay." Bird said, shocking them both, "Get Bullock. Let's go talk to Barnes. Maybe he'll listen if we're all there -or at least stop threatening Bullock's job."

"What?" Bruce nearly choked on the breath of air he was trying to pull in.

His airways felt tight, cutting off his oxygen supply.  
The one person he'd truly felt was on his side just switched her view so fast he felt like he'd gotten whiplash.

Jim's eyebrows lowered.  
He was entirely unsure of her motives, but at least for the moment he had someone else backing him.

With a slow nod, he looked at her one last time before he left the room.  
He didn't close the doors all the way and stood silently off to the side to hear what would be said between them.

"Why did you do that?" Bruce asked.

"Because he's right." Bird tried to get by with the simple answer, but her younger brother wasn't about to settle for it.

"No, he isn't… and you know it." Bruce argued.

"He's right about some of it. Look,I hate Strange, okay?" Bird stepped closer, "But I love you more than I hate him -and so if doing this thing by the book keeps your hands clean, then I'm on board."

"Look me in the eyes and tell me that you regret taking such extreme measures with Theo Galavan."

"That's pointless." Bird argued, "We both know I can look anyone in the eyes and lie right to their face."

"Yes, but you promised to be honest with me." He reminded her.

"I don't regret it." Bird openly admitted, "Given the chance I'd kill him a hundred times over. I still think he got what he deserved and I'm certainly not losing any sleep over what happened."

"Then what makes this any different-"

"You're not me." Bird interrupted, "Standing there, you may think that you wouldn't regret taking a life; taking his life, but once you cross that line… there is no going back, little brother. There's no do overs or second chances. Murder is permanent, okay? And if it ends up being something you can't handle then you'll continue to just beat yourself up for it every single day."

"I want better than that for you." She added.

"Because I need to be better?" He repeated what Jim had said to him.

"Yes."

"Why?"

He was getting exhausted from constantly being told that.

He'd suffered more than anyone from losing his parents and yet he was constantly told how he needed to deal with what happened.

He'd been the one who'd found their first real lead, gotten the name M. Malone -only to immediately be told by Alfred and his sister that one of them would be doing the killing and not him.

It was so incredibly frustrating to be told over and over by the ones closest to him that there were lines he couldn't cross -all while they repeatedly crossed those very same lines themselves.

"I could give you a millions reasons." Bird said with a defeated sigh, "But you've already heard them all before. So I'm just going to say that I love you and I know you can't understand it right now, but we're all just trying to protect you. I'd do anything for you."

"Even let Strange walk free? After all he's done?" Bruce couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Yes." She nodded.

"I don't believe that." Bruce argued, "If Detective Gordon's plan doesn't work, I can't imagine you'd just accept that.

"Go." Bird nodded towards the far exit of the room, "Get your coat if you want to come with us."

Once he was gone, Bird let out the breath of air she'd been holding and leaning forward, resting her hands on the desk as she hung her head.

Her little brother was growing up and getting to the point where he thought he didn't need anyone to protect him anymore.

And Bird wasn't naive, she knew there would be things she couldn't shelter him from.  
That in so many ways Bruce was really starting to reach the point in his life where the decisions he made now would ultimately shape the man he was going to grow into.

Broken hearts and making his own list of mistakes and regrets was one thing, it was an unavoidable part of growing up, but as long as she could keep him from doing something as life altering as killing someone, she'd do whatever it took and then some.

Jim watched her through the crack in the unlatched door after Bruce had left through the other set of double doors that was closer to the stairs.

He didn't believe that Bird was going to be able to let this go anymore than Bruce did, but he could see how much she was trying.  
Trying to set a better example for her brother.

It had been jarring for him to see Bruce all but flat out asking them to kill Strange, so he could only imagine the impact it had on her.

Which is why he had to get this one right.

He'd let the Wayne murder case fall by the wayside and because of that Bruce had gotten himself neck deep in a mess of things he never should have been involved in.  
Alfred had wound up in the hospital after a particularly brutal street fight and it had ended with Bird putting three bullets into the chest of Matches Malone and having to call in a clean up crew.

Even though Bird had forgiven him for everything that had happened with Galavan, he still couldn't forgive himself.  
The weight from the guilt of her nearly dying because he hadn't listened to her when she tried to tell him the truth was sill overwhelming at times.

The entire thing still played out in his dreams from time-to-time; waking him up in a cold sweat with the feeling of her blood on his hands feeling a little too fresh.

As with the night he'd made the decision to murder Galavan in cold blood.

Standing over him with the gun in his hand.  
Galavan beaten and bloody, lying on the ground broken enough he was begging for death.

Jim had been so sure in those moments that he wasn't going to regret it.  
That taking the life of one would be for the greater good or at least that's what he told himself.

Regret hadn't came as fast as the bullet that ended Galavan's life, it had been more like a poison slowly spreading through his entire being and tearing apart his life piece by piece.

It was wrong.  
He knew that now, but just like Bird had told her brother, it was an act he couldn't take back.

When he'd met with Hugo Strange earlier that day, the man had tried to get into Jim's head to evade the line of questioning he was being met with.

Strange had pointed out everything Jim had lost.  
Told him that this case wasn't about solving it or even about helping the Waynes.

He claimed Jim was doing this for himself.  
That he was trying to make up for the sins of his past and how he believed that righting these wrongs would somehow bring about his own personal redemption.

•••

* * *

 **A/N - Thank you all for reading. I hope everyone liked the chapter.**

 **Thanks to Shadow knight1121, chodofaggins, SmllYourScentForMiles, PetrovaLover, DancingDorisDay, Love. Fiction. 2018, xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, Caroline93, Munyue, Amelia, SusieQ and the Guests who reviewed chapter 28.**

 **I can't believe I'm so close to finishing up with season 2!  
I hope you're all still liking Bird's story and that you'll follow me into season 3. ^_^**


	30. Gone Girl

**XXX**

" _I am disappearing, maybe I'm already gone." - Jennifer Niven, All the Bright Places_

* * *

•••

"My office just responded to an anonymous tip and arrived here earlier this evening. Upon entering the construction site, my men discovered the bodies of four male victims. It'll be some time before we have any information about their identities." Captain Barnes said to the small gathering of reporters just outside of the crime scene tape.

Behind him was a construction site who's centerpiece was now the dead bodies of four men, strung upside down with their heads fully encased in buckets of now dried cement.

Taking in a deep breath he listened to their questions, voices blurring together.  
He didn't know what else to say.

His money was on the victims having still been alive when their heads were submerged in the cement, meaning they probably suffocated to death. A horrible way to die.  
He couldn't begin to explain how or why a human being would do something like this to another.

Just past the blur of camera flashes and countless microphones and hand held recorders being shoved in his face, Barnes caught sight of Bullock.  
Only he wasn't alone, he had Jim, Bruce and Bird with him.

"Uh... uh... that's all I have for you at this time." He said, dismissing all of the questions he'd been asked and leaving the reporters frustrated.

"Hey, Cap." Bullock cheesed a smile, "Look who I found…"

"Shut it, Bullock." Barnes ordered before turning to Jim, "You have one hell of a nerve,"

"Listen-" Jim tried to get a word in, but his former captain wasn't ready to buy what he was selling.

"You think I don't know it was you who busted out Karen Jennings?" Barnes stepped closer, getting in Jim's face, "Tell me it wasn't you."

"Captain-"

"I don't want to even hear it." Barnes scoffed, shaking his head in disbelief, "How do I keep falling for your games? Really, it's a mystery to me. Every time you come back, I truly believe that you've changed. You're like a-an optical illusion."

"Listen, I just need five minutes of your time." Jim continued on, as if he wasn't being given far more than a cold shoulder reception.

"Hargrove! Snead!" Barnes yelled a few of his uniformed officers, "Escort Mr. Gordon off my crime scene immediately."

"You-" Jutting a finger in Bullock's direction, Barnes sighed, "We're gonna have a little discussion about this in the morning."

"Captain Barnes, please. Hear him out." Bruce pleaded.

"Listen, kid…" Barnes let out another heavy sigh.

"Excuse me?" Bird's tone was sharp when she took a confrontational step forward.

"Mr. Wayne." Barnes corrected himself, knowing that least of all was Bruce Wayne to blame for anything that had happened, "I don't care how much money or pull you have in this town. I want Gordon out of my sight."

"Well, I'd like to live in a city where the people who are supposed to keeping the citizens safe actually do their jobs for once." Bird's eyebrows raised.

"That's rich, coming from you." Barnes retorted.  
If that was the case she'd have been behind bars a long time ago.

"Bird…" Jim quietly said, knowing the only thing she was going to accomplish was pissing his former boss even more.

"About as rich as someone who claims they're here to clean up the city, but isn't willing to listen to information brought to him." Bird said without missing a beat as she held her hand up to the side in an attempt to stop Jim's useless protests.

"I'm done." Barnes shook his head, "I'm done talking to him and I'm done talking to you."

"Are you through listening to truth?" Bruce's piped up from where he was standing partially behind his sister from where she'd stepped closer to the police captain.

Bird looked down, her dark brunette hair falling into her face and shielding the smirk on her lips from Barnes as she stepped back and let brother have his shot at getting what they wanted.

"Oh, come on." Barnes' face contorted, the bare skin of his bald head reflecting the flashing lights from the police cars nearby as he looked around them, "Give me a break."

He was already angry with Bullock.  
Jim was managing to get under his skin like no one else could.  
And Bird was one of the last people he'd willingly choose to speak to.

But Bruce Wayne was innocent in all of this.  
He represented everything Barnes' had sworn to protect and defend.

"Alright." His voice lowered in defeat, "Five minutes. No, three minutes."

•••

"So, in a nutshell, Hugo Strange is making monsters out of dead people in his spare time and he had Karen Jennings killed by Victor Fries, who's been dead for more than a few months?" Barnes rehashed everything he'd been told.

"I know it sounds far-fetched." Jim's eyebrows slanted down towards the sides of his face.  
Just hearing it repeated back to him sounded utterly ridiculous.

Something he wouldn't believe if he hadn't seen it for himself.

"Far-fetched?" Barnes echoed, "No, it sounds insane."

"But it's true, trust me." Jim pleaded with him.

"How can I trust you when you're talking crazy?" Barnes asked.

Bird looked over to where her Bullock had taken her brother off to the side so she and Jim could speak to the captain.

"Are you really not the type of person capable of learning from their mistakes?" Bird questioned.

"My mistakes?"

"Yes." Bird gave a single nod, "Months ago I was standing in your office trying to tell you who Galavan really was and you wouldn't listen because you thought I sounded crazy." Bird reminded him, pausing for effect, she finished, "And we all saw how that played out."

"Miss Wayne, months ago when you were in my office you looked to be on the verge of a psychotic break. Nothing that came out of your mouth sounded even slightly believable to anyone listening." Rubbing his forehead he reminded her, "You slapped a district attorney across the face!"

"That district attorney was also my ex-fiance."  
Her arms crossed defensively over her chest.

"That doesn't make it okay." Barnes pointed out, his expression twisting up from her words with a look of disbelief on his face.  
He glanced over to Jim wondering if he was the only one who thought she still sounded a little crazy.

"You have to trust us." Jim urged.

"Trust?" His voice raised.

Bird was a known criminal who never had to face down the implications of the life she'd chosen.  
She lived outside of the law -and it seemed anymore that outside of the law was exactly where Jim was choosing to spend his time as well.

He felt a lot of things towards them both, but at the moment trust wasn't on the list.

"Yes-" Jim wanted to plead his case again, but Barnes had heard more than enough from them both.  
He was sick of even looking at their faces.

"You lied to me!" Barnes interrupted.

"I lied to you because it's hard to tell you the truth!" Jim's tone raised to match his former captain's, "You're stubborn and you're angry and the GCPD has paid the price for it!"

"Really?" Barnes' expression fell somewhere between a scowl and smirk, "You self-righteous, punk. You think you have all the answers? Maybe you should run it yourself!"

"Maybe I will one day!"

"In your dreams!"

"Hey, hey, hey." Bird yelled, physically getting between them and placing a hand in the center of Jim's chest to push him back from where he'd gotten up in Barnes' face, "I don't have time for…" Looking between them, she shook her head in defeat, "Whatever the hell this is."

When they quite yelling at one another, Bird stepped back beside Jim and faced Barnes as she spoke, "Look, I'm not admitting or confessing to anything here, but it's not exactly a secret that my usual way on handling these situations doesn't involve GCPD. But I'm here. I am trying to do the right thing and you won't even hear me out."

"Yeah." Barnes wiped the sweat away that had beaded across his forehead, "About that. Why are you here?"

"For my brother." Bird admitted, "He-"

Jim at first thought Bird was either getting choked up from emotion or had lost her train of thought, that was until he heard metal clanking from off in the distance of the construction site.

"Who's there?" Barnes called out, expecting to get an answer from one of his many officers still on site to process the crime scene. When he didn't he squinted his eyes in the late evening shadows, "I said who's out there?"

"What the hell…" Jim breathed as a tall shadowed figured finally stepped into their line of sight.

The man was dressed in armor from head-to-toe, complete with a cape and a hood over the mask shielding his face.

"James Gordon." The nameless man spoke, his voice was deep and sounded distorted, "The time for your penance has come."

"You know this guy?" Barnes asked looking over his former star detective.

"Who are you?" Jim yelled back.

"I am Azrael!" He answered, rolling his R's he continued, "Righteous scourge of sinners, and I have come to kill you, James Gordon."

Jim and Bird exchanged looks, not sure what to make of the person who stood in front of them.

The threat of the moment wasn't fully realized until the masked stranger brandished a sword and started to descend on the ever confused trio.

"Drop your weapon!" Barnes yelled, drawing his gun and Jim did the same, "Put the weapon down."

Slowly, but not seeming to be in fear of the weapons pointed at him, Azrael knelt down but didn't drop his prized sword.

It was barely even a split second later that he'd ducked out of sight behind a stack of wood pallets.

"Where' he'd go?" Barnes asked, but neither Bird or Jim could give an answer.  
They hadn't seen any more than the captain had.

Picking up a crow bar from the ground, Bird adjusted her grip and looked around them just in time to see the flash of a cape off to the side. "There!" She yelled.

Turning, Jim started to open fire, but Azrael was hiding back in the shadows before he'd barely gotten two shots off.

Jim's eyes darted around the room, as he turned more and put his back towards Bird's, both trusting each other to watch out for the threat.

But Barnes didn't stay with the group, he'd ventured off a little ways after thinking he'd saw movement across the large empty room of the building construction was being done in and around.

Catching movement from the corner of his eyes, Barnes turned and started to fire at Azrael, but the masked man was much too fast and far too strong.

He knocked the captain's arm back and before Barnes could react, Azrael raised a leg and kicked him hard in the center of his chest -sending him flying backwards into the stack of wood pallets.

"Captain!" Jim yelled as he tried to rush his aid, narrowly avoiding getting sliced from the sword that Azrael brought down.

Just as he'd done to Barnes, Azrael kicked Jim down and raised his sword up with every intention of making this breath his last, but before he could impale Jim with his blade, Bird was there -hitting Azrael in the side of his head with the crowbar she was holding.

Only the impact barely seemed to have an effect.

Looking down to the crowbar in shock, she took a step back from the masked figure, not understanding how the blow hadn't brought him to his knees.

She'd hit him with such force that she could still feel the vibrations moving through the bones in her arms and shoulders.

Impossible. It was impossible that he was still standing.

"Stand aside." Azrael warned, "Or face my judgment."

Without answering him, Bird swiftly moved the crowbar through the air, hitting him in the head again -this time the impact left her right hand numb and pain shooting up her arms.

With a hiss of pain, the bar fell to the ground and she stumbled back.

"Bird!" Jim yelled, from where he was frantically trying to get up from the ground, but he didn't have much time to warn her before Azrael took hold of the shoulders from her coat and tossed her across the room as if she was the weight of a feather.

"Your time has come, James Gordon." Azrael turned back to him, sword high in the air, but before he could make a move, Bullock had rushed into the building with a team of officers responding to shots and commotion they could hear outside.

"Jim!" He yelled, with his weapon already drawn as he fired round after round at the masked figure.

Now being on the receiving end of retribution from about fifteen armed men, Azrael gave up on his task for the moment and fled the scene.

He ran to the back of the building and jumped up onto a construction platform in front of the second floor windows, from there he scaled up the wall, up a few more stories before finally jumping out of one of the empty window frames.

Bruce stood and stared up to where the man had disappeared.  
He'd never seen anymore be able to move like that. To jump upwards several feet like that.

Looking back around the room, he saw Jim getting on his feet and Barnes was in the process of standing up himself -both of them looked just as shocked and confused as he was sure he appeared himself.

Catching movement from the corner of his eyes, he looked over to see his sister on the floor.

"Starling!" Her name left his tongue carrying the full weight of the fear he was feeling.

"I'm okay. I'm…" She breathed out in a wince as she sat up.

Dropping on the floor next to her, his eyes darted around to make sure there wasn't any blood. He'd seen the masked man carrying a large sword, but luckily she didn't seem to be cut.

"Something's wrong." She said reaching out and grabbing onto his arm.

"Don't move." Bruce ordered, "You could be severely hurt-"

"No. Not with me." She quickly tried to put his fears to rest, "Bruce, that… thing, picked me up and threw me over here like it was nothing. I- I…" She stammered, "I hit him hard enough that his skull should have cracked open and he barely flinched."

With the pit in his stomach deepening, Bruce looked behind him back to where the man had escaped.  
How was that even possible?

"Are you okay?" Jim questioned concerned as he walked over to them, relieved to see that she was at least able to sit up and conscious.  
He'd had no idea how hard she'd landed.

"Yeah." She nodded, doing her best to hide the pain she was in as Jim and Bruce helped pull her up to her feet.  
She was sure the entire left side of her body was going to be one huge bruise by the next morning.

"We lost him." Barnes sighed as he joined back up with the group, pausing for a moment to looking around he questioned, "Anyone hurt?"

"We're okay." Jim answered.

"Good." Barnes gave a single, abrupt nod, "Then you're all coming back to the station for a little chat."

•••

"I need information now." Barnes said as he shut the door to his office and turned back to face Bird, Jim and Bruce who now stood in his office at the GCPD precinct, "What do we know about this guy?"

"Just what you saw." Jim answered, "Calls himself Azrael. Wants to kill me."

"We know Hugo Strange is the one behind this." Bruce spoke up.

"Told you so, did he?" Barnes shot back.

Bruce bit down on the side of his tongue and shook his head.

The police were supposed to be good guys. The ones who'd taken an oath to keep the city and it's citizens safe and yet he was being met with nothing but resistance while trying to bring them a lead.

"Who else could it be?" Bird's eyebrows furrowed.  
She was beginning to regret ever have chosen Jim's side in the argument over how to deal with Strange.

"I have no idea." Barnes was quick to cut them down, "I have to find out the facts. The fun part about being a police detective instead of a loose canon vigilante."

"Excuse me, captain." Bruce cleared his throat, "I find your flippant attitude to be appropriate."

A stunned expression fell over his face as he stared back at the youngest Wayne, before his eyes moved over to where Bird was trying her best to hold back a laugh.

The similarity between them was unmistakable.  
Not only in their looks, but in the way that neither was afraid to speak their mind to persons of authority.  
Even if Bruce was far more polite about it.

"I find you to be kind of a pain in the ass." He spoke in a deadpan voice as he looked to Bruce.

"What's he even doing here?" Barnes questioned, his line of sight falling heavily on his former detective as he added, "And her? What are either of them doing here?"

"I'm a concerned citizen. I want to know what you're doing about all of this." Bruce handled himself with the eloquence of someone more than twice his age.

"What he said." Bird smiled proudly.

"I…" Barnes began, clearing his throat and taking a second to compose himself, "I'm going to assemble the strike-force, call in all off duty police personal and we're gonna dragnet the living daylights out of this wacko. A knight from outer space shouldn't be too hard to find, right?"  
With a smile he continued, "What you're gonna do is go home and stop inserting yourself into police business."

"Captain…" Bruce started to argue.

"That's the final word." Barnes spoke as if he was scolding a young child, complete with a stern look right at Bruce's eye-level before he left the trio alone in his office.

Bruce couldn't hide the apparent shock on his face.

The police captain didn't have right to speak to him that way. He hadn't done anything wrong.  
His own parents wouldn't have tried to assert their authority over him in that manner.

Shaking his head as if he turned and looked at his sister, "What do we do now?"

Bruce had no idea what it would entail, but Bird always seemed to have a plan.  
He was sure the entire time Barnes was lecturing them, that she had to be scheming against his orders.

"You're not gonna like it." Bird said as she stepped closer to where he was standing on the other side of Jim, "He's right-"

"He isn't." Bruce argued, "Captain Barnes was wrong about everything-"

"Except the part where it's time for you to go home." Bird answered.

She hated this part.  
Trying to tell him what to do, especially when she understood more than anyone how hard it was to just sit back watch everything unfold around you.

"This isn't right!" His voice raised.

"Bruce." Jim calmly said, "You need to leave the rest of this to the police and to me. I can't make the moves I need to if I'm worried about you."

"So you both are going out there to risk your lives, putting yourselves in danger and I'm just expected to go home?" His eyes darted between Jim and Bird.

He didn't say it out loud, but he was finding himself missing the days when they could barely get along.

Now they were close friends -possibly more and to make matters worse, he felt like now he didn't have either of them on his side.  
Instead they were teaming up against him.

"Starling?" He pleaded as his eyes met his sister's.  
She'd been the one who'd taken over most of his training.  
Taught him how to not only properly defend himself, but how to fight back.

He could be useful to them if they'd only give him the chance; he was sure of it.

"Come on." She said as she walked closer and put a hand on his shoulder, "We're going to find Bullock so he can drive you back to Wayne Manor."

Silently, he let her lead him from the room, knowing he didn't much have a choice in the matter anymore.

When would it be his chance to make decisions, he wondered as they headed down the stairs from the captain's office.

He understood that the people closet to him were worried about something bad happening to him, but couldn't they see that he was worried about the very same thing when it came to them?

"I know you're mad at me." Bird said, looking over at him, "And I know it doesn't seem fair, but the best place for you is at home with Alfred for now."

"Yes, well, when will that be my own decision to make? Why have I spent so much time training and growing stronger to just stay inside the walls and safety of home?" He questioned.

Coming to a stop she she turned to face him, "You mean when will it be your time to go running into the line of fire?"  
Without giving him any chance to respond she smiled, "When I'm dead and gone, little brother. But while I'm alive, I will do everything in my power to keep you safe."

"The disregard you show for your own life and well-being is alarming, Starling." Bruce answered with a purely unamused expression on his youthful face.

•••

"He calls himself Azrael." Barnes addressed the entire police force, "He's armed, dangerous, and has exhibited some extraordinary physical abilities. But no one... and I mean no one... comes into our city and tries to carve up my officers. We're gonna go out tonight, and we're gonna comb each and every block until we find this masked freak and put him behind bars where he belongs."

"Any questions?" He asked.

"No, sir!" They echoed back."

"Good. Now get out there and get him!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Barnes saw Bird and Jim starting to leave too.

"What are you doing?" He called after them.

"Going out there." Jim answered.

This wasn't just police business.  
Not only was Azrael apparently out to kill him, but he knew without a doubt that Strange was ultimately pulling the strings behind this entire operation.

"The both of you?" Barnes walked closer to where they'd stopped when he called to them.

"Yes." They both answered in unison.

"The hell is this?" Barnes asked, "You two a packaged deal now or what?"

"Something like that." Jim answered.

"I don't care." He sighed shaking his head, "She's going home and you're staying here for your own protection."

"Excuse me?" Jim asked before Bird could say anything.

"That's an order." Barnes spoke in a tone similar to the one in which he'd ordered Bruce around with.

"I'm not a cop anymore, remember?" Jim spoke with animosity in his tone the very phrase that everyone loved to keep reminding him of, "I don't need to follow your orders."

Bird's dimples showed as she smiled at the look at Barnes' face.  
The captain of the GCPD wasn't having a good day at all and she couldn't deny how comical she found it.

"You're absolutely right." Barnes nodded.  
Looking past them to a few uniformed officers, he ordered, "You two. Put Mr. Gordon and Miss Wayne, here in lockup."

"What?" Jim yelled at the same time Bird angrily argued, "You can't do that!"

"Oh, but I can." Barnes offered them both a satisfied smile, "I'm holding you both on the suspicion of breaking Karen Jennings out of GCPD custody."

They'd been nothing but a pain in his ass for the last few hours and this was the only way he could keep an eye on them.

"Don't do this." Jim pleaded with his former boss as the officers led him and Bird over to the holding cells in the station.

"It's already done."

•••

"I can't believe this." Jim muttered under his breath as he stood at the front of the cell and held onto the bars, staring out into the rest of the police station at the few handfuls of officers that had stayed behind while everyone else was scouring the city for Azrael.

"I can." Bird answered from where she was sitting on the built-in bench towards the back of the cell they were sharing, "He's impossible.."

There was truth to her words; but he also knew that Barnes was one of the good ones.

His first day on the job he'd fired a group of corrupt officers and had been doing everything in his power to clean up the city.

But that now seemed to be the problem, Barnes' power only reached as far as the arm of the law and in a place like Gotham the wasn't very far.

"We have to get out of here."

Bird's eyes titled upwards at Jim's need to state the obvious.

"No kidding." Bird sighed, "We're sitting ducks in here."

Turning back to face her, Jim watched as the look of anger an annoyance faded from her face and turned into a smile with a mischievous look in her eyes.

"What?" He questioned as she stood up and walked closer.

"Call one of cops with keys to these cells over to us." Bird answered, "Get him close enough and I'll grab the keys."

"We can't do that." Jim was fast to shoot the idea down.

"Why not?" The playful look in her eyes gave way to a scowl on her face.

Standing around and saying they needed to get out of there wasn't helping anyone at all.  
They needed to take steps to actually break free.

"Because you've both probably broken enough laws for one day."

Walking into view, Barnes looked between them expecting an argument from Bird, but instead Jim surprised and disappointed him yet again as he argued back, "There are times when breaking the law is the right thing to do."

"And who gets to decide that, you?" Barnes asked. Facing down the one who used to be his star detective. Someone he'd looked at as more of a son than an employee.

"Someone has to." Jim solemnly spoke and Bird nodded from where she stood beside him.

"No, Jim, you're wrong." Barnes could barely remember a time when he felt more disappointed in him.

"No." Bird shook her head, "You're the one who's wrong."  
With a shrug she added, "I don't know how you can't see just how wrong you are."

"I can see where Gotham is going." He answered, "Maniacs, perverts, freaks, are crawling out of every hole. It's like a sea of evil of flooding the city."

His gaze landed on Jim and he spoke in an all-knowing tone, "If a man doesn't cling onto the law, he'll lose sight of his bearings. Drown."

Jim took a step back away from the bars, his gaze falling to the floor.

Barnes' arrogance over how to handle the crime in Gotham was burrowing under his skin, but perhaps what bothered him even more was realizing the change within himself.

A few years ago, he thought the same way his captain did. That by using the law they could combat crime, clean out the dirty cops and maybe the city would start to trust the police again.

But that wasn't practical. Not in Gotham.

He knew that now and while he did regret certain actions he'd taken and couldn't deny the toll that killing Galavan had take on him.

"They're not afraid of you." Bird finally said as she faced Barnes through the bars, "The maniacs and perverts and freaks that you're saying are a flooding the city. They're not afraid of you."

"They should be." Barnes argued with her, "Because I'm not going to stop until everyone of them is brought to justice."

"Can you not see what you're up against out there?" Bird scoffed, "You're standing here talking law and order while the city is being terrorized."

"You can't put out a fire by adding more gasoline, Miss Wayne." Barnes started to argue his point that you can't fight fire with fire, but she wasn't finished talking.

"Crime rates have soared in the recent months and calls to the police are at an all time low!" Bird spoke over him.

When she was met by stunned expressions from both Jim and Barnes, she gave a small shrug and explained, "My secretary filled me in on some of the statistics today at work."

"Right." Barnes nodded, "Speaking of your new job. The crime scene today -the bodies with their heads in cement, I couldn't help but notice the Wayne Enterprise name on the construction site."

"Probably one out of every ten buildings that goes up is linked to my family's company." Bird reasoned, "What's your point?"

"Sure, but this building is going to be one of the shelters your opening, is it not?" Barnes continued.

Bird didn't answer him, but she could feel Jim's eyes on her now.  
Wondering why she hadn't mentioned that to him sooner and if she knew more than she was letting on.

"I didn't kill those guys." Bird was quick to defend, "I don't even know who they were."

"You don't think this might have been some sort of message?" Barnes pushed, "Maybe even a warning of some kind?"

"A message to who? Me?" A smiled crept across her lips, "I doubt that very much, Captain."

Jim watched her closely, knowing there must be something else going on.

"But even if it were -you wouldn't tell me." Barnes voiced out loud.

"Captain, enough." Jim cut in, "You have to let us out of here."

"No, I don't have to do anything. And you're in there for your own good-"

His sentence abruptly cut short when the entire police station went dark.

" _What the hell?"_  
 _"What gives with the lights?"_  
 _"Everything's down!"_

Bird stayed silent listening to the panic start to rise in the officer's voices as they were left with once of their five senses impaired.

"Blackout?" Barnes questioned, taking a step back closer to the cell.

"I don't think so." Jim answered.

Feeling Bird's hand on his arm, he looked over at her in what little light was coming in through the windows and could see she was looking across the station with her head titled back some, her gaze directed up towards the ceiling.

Following her line of sight, he saw what had caught her attention.

Outside of the large windows above the entrance to the station, there was a shadow moving between the streetlights outside and frosted glass.

He opened his mouth to tell Barnes, but before he could the shadow burst through the window, sending shards of glass flying all over the interior balcony floor.

Azrael stepped up onto the balcony railing, surveying the room and seeing several men with guns pointed at him.

Jim stepped back further from the cell bars and pulled Bird back with him when Azrael jumped down from the second floor and landed perfectly at the head of the room.

"James Gordon!"  
Azrael's unnaturally deep voice echoed off the walls in the otherwise silent building.

"Back up, against the cell. Move!" Barnes commanded his officers to shield Jim from the harm Azrael was there to inflict on him.

Bird noticed the surprise in the captain's voice. Like he really couldn't believe this man had just stormed the precinct.

She, however, wasn't the least bit surprised.  
After all, with keeping Jim there at the station while a masked assassin was on the hunt for him, what had he expected to happen?

"This is Captain Barnes of the GCPD!" Barnes yelled, as his officers shined their flashlights around the station searching for where Azrael had went, "Whoever you are, step into the light or we will take you out."

"But I am the light." A voice answered back, "Tasked with vanquishing the evil in that cell."

"You can die trying!" Barnes retorted, his eyes darting all over the place as he tried to pinpoint where the voice was coming from.

"You lead these men, so I will parley with you." Azrael continued to speak.

"Parley?" Barnes breathed.

"Order them to stand aside and allow the sinner, James Gordon, to be punished. Do this, and I will spare them all. Decline and they will face my judgment." Azrael continued, "Their lives now rest in your hands. How many will die? All? Or one? Decide, Captain."

"You can go to hell." Barnes nearly growled, readjusting the grip on his gun and waiting for Azrael to come out of hiding and show his masked face.

"I've been there. You go." Azrael said.

The next noise was a pained grunt from one of the officers who'd been quickly disarmed and knocked down by the masked man.

Heightened panic moved through the police station in waves, each bigger than the last as Azrael was able to move among the shadows unnoticed and took out the police officers one-by-one.

" _Over there!"_  
 _"You see him?"_  
 _"Where'd he go?"_

Each officer sounded increasingly fearful as their brothers and sisters in arms were being executed; their blood sprayed the walls.

Red spattered across the paperwork and open case files that were still strewn on the desks while cries of pain rang out.

" _There!"_  
 _"You got eyes on him?_  
 _"Where is he?"_  
 _"I don't know…"_

Jim stepped back up to the bars, concern and pain flooded over his face as he saw the carnage Azrael was leaving behind through the moving beams of flashlights from the officers still standing.

Whoever this man was, he was impossible foe. Moving quicker than anyone he'd seen before.  
Possessing superhuman strength and for whatever reason was there to put him down.

This masked man wasn't going to stop and Jim knew that he'd kill every single person in the station to get to him.

"Jim!"

Hearing Bird's voice, he looked over to see she was on the floor against the far side of the cell with her arm reached through the bars as far as she could stretch.

"Help me." She whisper-yelled as her fingertips just barely scraped against the fabric of a fallen officers shirt.

Realizing she was trying to drag the slain officer's body closer in order to reach the keys on his belt, Jim darted over to her.

Working together they manged to pull the body closer to the cell and Bird grabbed onto the keys.

Scrambling to the door, she reached through and tried to focus on getting the cell door unlocked instead of the stress and fear so thick in air the that you could taste it.

Rapid fire gun shots bounced back off the walls as a few men caught sight of Azrael while he scaled the corner of the room.

"Bird-" Jim's voice shook as he heard the thud of another body nearby hitting the floor.

"Shut up." She hissed through her clench teeth, "I'm trying!"

Once she finally got the door unlock, she let the keys fall from her hands and pushed the door to the cell open.

With Jim right on her heels they walked out into the rest of the room, both living on a prayer that they weren't going to walk right into the one sent there to kill him.

They'd only made it few steps out of the cell when they heard movement from beside them and looked over just in time to see Azrael walk up behind an officer and effortlessly snap his neck.

With a single flick of the arm, he managed to knock Bird out of his way and send her flying over the top of a desk.

Azrael grabbed onto Jim and lifted him up in the air before slamming his body down on the top of another desk with such power that all the air was forced from his lungs, leaving him helpless and choking for a breath.

Following the sounds, the still standing officers opened fire on Azrael, who picked up a gun one of the slain had dropped and shot back at them..

"Such an amazing tool of destruction…" He said, looking down at the metal weapon before pointing it at Jim and pulling the trigger, but the clip was empty.  
Confused as to why it didn't work anymore, Azrael looked back at the gun and complained, "Vile sorcery!" Before tossing the weapon to the side.

Raising his leg, Azrael kicked Jim off the desk, sending his body flipping violently through the air before he slammed into the wall and fell to the floor.

Bird pulled herself up from the floor just in time to see Jim's violent impact with the wall.

Barnes got up from where he'd been knocked down just as Bird darted past him over to where Jim was.

Seeing Azrael was following her, no doubt to finish what he'd started with Jim, Barnes rushed at him. Using every ounce of strength left in his body to knock the masked man down.

"Jim!" Bird dropped to the floor next to him.

Looking up at her with a pained grimace on his face, he saw the lines of blood running down from her hairline where she'd hit her head.

With her help, he managed to get stood up and they both limped their way over to where Barnes was standing in front of Azrael, who was sitting against the outside of the holding cell.

Cocking his gun, Barnes fired every last round in the chamber at the downed assailant, but each and every shot proved utterly useless; each bullet barely left chinks in his armor.

But for the moment he wasn't moving, just stayed motionless.

Thinking that maybe he was knocked out from the fall, Bird started forward.  
The only way they were going to be able to kill this thing was if they could actually make contact with his skin. If she just could just get his mask off then they could shoot him in the head.

She wasn't sure what the hell Azrael was, but a head-shot would surely put a stop to his short reign of terror.

Jim grabbed onto Bird's arm to keep her back.  
He had a pretty idea what she was planning, but getting that close was too big of a risk, especially when he was still holding a sword.

A low growl emanated from behind the mask before Azrael started to move, they could hear bones popping back into place as he rolled his head from side-to-side.

The trio all stepped back away from the waking beast.

"We need a bigger gun." Jim said.

"Yeah." Barnes spoke quietly as they all three continued to back away from Azrael, "I'm going to lure the freak up the stairs then you show up with something that will tear a hole in this bastard."

"You got it." Jim agreed.

"Let's get to the roof right now!" Barnes yelled to sell the lie as he made a run for the stairwell.

Following behind him, Jim grabbed onto Bird's hand and pulled her with him as they ran past the stairs and towards the end of the hallway that held a weapons locker.

The detour only took a matter of minutes; getting the key and retrieving a few shotguns from the locker, but they weren't quick enough to make it to the roof before Azrael had seriously injured Captain Barnes.

Just as they ran through where the door to the roof had been busted off it's hinges, they saw Barnes' body fall to the ground while a now unmasked Azrael stood above him with the blood covered piece of broken sword he'd just plunged into office's abdomen.

"Captain!" Jim yelled, horrified by what they'd just seen.

"Oh my god…" Bird breathed, her eyes widening as Azrael turned to face them, "No…" Was all she could manage to say.

"Yes." He answered back, adjusting his grip on the blood slicked handle of his sword.

"You…" Bird stammered, "You're supposed to be dead. You're dead."

"Not anymore." Theo Galavan laughed in his newly deepened voice.

Jim stared at him with wide eyes, for a second hardly even able to comprehend what was happening and who was standing in front of him.

Clutching onto the shotgun, Jim felt like he might trip over his own feet as he slowly advanced forward.

"Come to me!" Galavan ordered, holding his arms out to the sides, "And I will show you the way to hell."

Raising the gun, Jim answered back, "I know the way."

With that he cocked the shotgun and fired, but Galavan was much too fast and managed to not only dart out of the way, but even took the time to pick his mask up from the ground as he went.

He avoided every single shot Jim fired at him, until one hit his leg.

The shell didn't pierce his armor, but the force of the bullet did slow him, nearly knocking him off his feet.

A few more blasts from the shotgun proved much more dangerous and painful than he'd expected and to get away from the shots, Galavan-turned-Azrael lept from the roof and fell onto a parked car in the street below.

Landing right in front of the sea of bright lights and reporters from the news vans that were waiting outside of the station.

"Go!" Jim yelled, looking back to where Bird hadn't moved a muscle since seeing Galavan in the flesh again, "Call for ambulance"

Bird blinked rapidly, trying to clear her vision from where she'd been staring unblinking for an uncomfortably long time.

Her gaze moved from the spot where Galavan had jumped from the roof, to where Jim was knelt at his boss's side.

Dropping the shotgun she hadn't even had the coherency to use on the ground, she turned and darted back into the building, racing down the stairs as fast as her legs could carry her.

Throwing the doors open to the front of the building, she got tripped up on the uneven pavement outside and hit the ground with a hard thud.

" _Oh my god!"_  
 _"Is that Starling Wayne?"_  
 _"Miss Wayne!"_  
 _"Was that the former mayor?"_  
 _"Miss Wayne!"_  
 _"She's bleeding!"_  
 _"We're you present for the shootout inside of the station?"_  
 _"What did you see?"_  
 _"Miss Wayne!"_  
 _"Was that really Theo Galavan?"_

With a blank expression she blinked up at all the lights and cameras being shoved in her face, the reporters voices all blurred together like the sound of fly buzzing, lodged deep in her brain.

"Are you okay?"  
Bird's eyes finally focused on the concerned face of one of the EMT's who'd been waiting outside of the police station for the all the clear to go in and help the wounded.

She watched as he waved another EMT over and started telling the reporters to back up and give them space.

"You need to get to the roof." Bird said, reaching up and grabbing onto his arm with her trembling hand, "Captain Barnes is down. He's on the roof… it's really bad."

Seeing the reluctance to the emergency responder had to leave her, Bird promised, "I'm fine. Go!"

In the seconds it took her get up from the ground and back to her feet, the reporters were closing in again.

Each one trying to yell their questions louder than anyone else, to be the first ones with the inside scoop on what had happened.

The buzzing sound started back up like a bug burrowed into her brain, so much so that she could have sworn her brain was vibrating in her head, sending tremors down through all of her bones and muscles.

All she could manage to do was stare wide eyed into the lights, each flash adding another dark spot over her vision.

"Back up!"  
Bullock gruffly yelled at the reporters before turning to where more officers were making it onto the scene and telling them they needed to get a perimeter blocked off around the building.

"Hey, you okay?" Bullock asked, getting between Bird and the crowd that had swarmed her.

Trying but failing to blink away the dark spots over her vision, Bird couldn't find her words to speak to him.  
Instead she looked down to where she had bits of gravel and small jagged rocks stuck in the palms of her hands from where she'd fell minutes prior.

Bullock's brows raised at the shell-shocked expression she was wearing, before his sight moved past her and to where EMT's were bringing out officers on gurneys and he started to fully gather how much destruction had been left behind.

"Where's Jim?" He asked.

Lifting one of her hands, Bird pointed upwards.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" He yelled, growing increasingly frantic.  
Bird wasn't someone to be so easily rendered into a shocked state like that.

So he was sure whatever she'd seen it was bad and now he had no idea what she was trying to tell him.

"Up-" She started to get her voice back.

"Up?" Bullock cut in, "Up? Up where? What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

As more bodies and fatally injured officers were being carted out of the building, his mind went to the worse case scenario and her pointing up towards the sky didn't help matters any.

"The roof." Bird said once she was given a chance to speak.

"Why didn't you say that in the first place?" He asked as he started to head into building but then turned back to see was still standing in the same place and he knew given the chance the reporters were going to swarm her again.

With a sigh, he turned back, "Come on." Sliding am arm behind her, he led her back into the building and towards the stairwell.

As they reached the roof he was able to breath a sigh of relief when he saw Jim was alive and standing; albeit a little bruised and bloody.

" _Radio Gotham General, let them know we're coming in hot."_

Bullock looked over to see three EMT's wheeling a severely wounded and now unconscious police captain past them on a gurney.

"Jim!" He jogged towards his partner, "What the hell happened?"

"It was Galavan." Jim said, thinking that it didn't sound any less insane being spoken out loud,

"What?" Bullock asked, out of breath, "You sure?"

"I know it's hard to believe, but Azrael is Galavan." Jim faced him as he spoke.

"Damn…" Bullock breathed, taking his hat off and rubbing a hand over his head."  
"Guess that explains why crazy eyes has gone mute." He added as he slid his hat back on.

Jim's eyebrows furrowed in response until he looked over and saw Bird standing towards the top of the stairs.

"Bird?" He asked moving closer.  
But she didn't respond, just continued to stare blankly in front of her.

"Bird."  
The feeling of his hands on her arms brought her back to the present and slowly she blinked her yes and until her vision managed to focus on him.

"What?" She questioned.

"We need to get you checked out, okay?" Jim said, as he leaned in to get a better look at the still bleeding wound on her head, "You've hit your head pretty hard."

"I'm fine." She argued.

"You're not fine." He didn't miss a beat, "You've been thrown across the room, your bleeding and Galavan is alive. You're not fine."

"I'm okay." She promised, her voice quiet and bit too calm considering what they'd all just seen, "We knew this was a possibility, right? I mean Strange brought Victor Fries back to life. So why not Galavan too? I mean…"

Her voice trailed off and she shook her head.  
Even though he was standing right in front of her, Jim felt like she was no longer aware he was there. The blank look was back in her eyes.

Out of nowhere Bird burst into a fit of unhinged laughter that drew the attention of everyone still on the roof, "I mean this guy single-handedly ruined my entire life. I -I… I finally got the pieces picked back up… so of course he comes back from the dead."

"Bird." Jim tried to keep his voice level and calm, but it was easier said than done when she was still laughing like a madman.

"It's going to be okay." He promised, taking her face in his hands, doing his best to avoid the thick trails of blood down the one side, "We're going to find him and we're going to stop him. He's not going to hurt you again-"

"How are we going to do that, Jim?" Bird asked, having a little trouble breathing after she'd finally been able to reign in her laughter.

"By doing whatever it takes." He answered, "He's not going to win."

"Okay." Bird answered with a slow blink and look in her eyes that he couldn't quite place.

Reaching up she pulled his hands from her face, and said, "I want to go home."

"Yeah." He nodded, "I need to talk to Bullock but then we can-"

"Stay." Her eyes met his, "Stay and do whatever you need to do. I'm going home."

"Bird-"

"I'll call a doctor when I get there. I promise." She cut his argument short, knowing he was getting ready to point out how she was hurt and bleeding again.

•••

It was a few hours later that Jim made it to Bird's townhouse. Coming to a stop at the bottom of the handful of stairs leading up to the door, his shoulders slouched in exhaustion.

Each stair in front of him might as well have been a mountain to climb.

He was heavily feeling the aches and pains from where Galavan had kicked him across the police station earlier that night.

Every single bone ached.  
Every muscle in his body was sore.

The fatigue ran much deeper than just the physical effects. He was having trouble seeing straight from as tired as he was.

Even if he managed to make it up the stairs to get in the house, he was planning on crashing on the couch, he didn't think he had it in him to make up the stairs to the bedroom.

Just as he reached the top step, he saw the door was ajar and worry took over the tiredness.

Getting a second wind fueled by fear, he drew his gun and pushed the door open, surveying the entryway before walking the rest of the way inside.

He'd tried to call Bird about twenty minutes ago to let her know he was coming over, but she hadn't answered.  
Knowing how tired she must have been too, he'd assumed she'd already went to bed.

"Bird?" He yelled out, but didn't get an answer.

His heart thudded away inside of his chest as he followed to low murmur of voices into the sitting room where he found the TV was on, but the room was otherwise empty.

Crossing the room and switching the set off, he was at least relieved to see nothing in the house seemed out of place.  
No signs of a struggle.

Staying alert and with his weapon at the ready, Jim climbed the stairs and made his way to the master bedroom, calling out her name again as he went.

Only any hopes that she'd simply not gotten the door entirely shut and was safe in her bed were dashed when he found the room was just as empty as downstairs was.

The doors to her walk-in closet were standing wide open, but from what he could tell nothing much was missing.

He checked the rest of the house but couldn't find her.

Taking his phone from his pocket, he tried calling her, hoping that wherever she was that she at least had her phone and would answer him.

He looked around when he could hear her phone ringing from inside of the house.  
Holding his phone out to the side, he tracked the sound into the bathroom attached to the master bedroom.

But still no sign of Bird.

Her phone was laying on the counter next to a bloody washcloth that he assumed she'd been washing her face with and her keys.

It looked as though she'd gotten home, started to wash up and get ready for bed and then had simply dropped everything and walked away.

He shouldn't have let her leave, he thought to himself.

Galavan's resurrection had -had a profound effect on her and he knew this.  
Not only had her entire world been flipped upside down in matter of minutes, but there was also the factor of her having hit her head.

He had no way of knowing if she was okay, or wandering around the city still injured.

Jim's heart sank into the black pit his stomach had turned into.  
He had no idea where she was or if she was even okay or if she'd ever called a doctor like she'd promised.

The only thing he knew was that she was gone.

 **•••**

* * *

 **A/N - Uh-oh! Where did Bird go? Lol.**

 **Thanks to: Shadow knight1121, chodofaggins, Munyue, Love. Fiction. 2018, xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, DancingDorisDay, SmellYourScentForMiles, SusieQ, Katniss789, PetrovaLover and to the guests who reviewed chapter 29! ^_^**

 **I'd really appreciate it if you'd take the time to leave a review and let me know what you thought of the chapter.**  
 **I know updates have been a little slower lately and I feel like I might have lost some of my readers, but I'm really doing the best I can to get new chapters out quickly.**  
 **I'm looking forward to finishing up season 2 and starting the next story for season 3 and I hope that those of you who are still with me are excited too!**

 **Thank you for reading.**


	31. Runaway

**XXXI**

" _We should forgive our enemies, but not before they are hanged." - Heinrich Heine_

* * *

•••

Bird's nose wrinkled in disgust as she walked into the mansion that had belonged to Elijah Van Dahl.  
The scent of decay was so strong in the air that by the time she reached the dining room she nearly expected Grace's body to still be there.

Flies were buzzing all over the room and the food on the table was covered in maggots; left from the last night she'd been there; the night he'd killed Grace.

Quickly darting out of the dining room, she slammed the sliding wooden doors together in an attempt to keep the stench and bugs in the room she'd fled.

"Hello, Bird."

Turning around she faced Oswald, who had a very pungent odor coming from him.  
He was still in the same clothes she'd last seen him in, his hair was greasy and flattened down to his scalp.

"Oswald, I…" Her voice trailed off and her eyes moved to what he was holding in his arms.

"Is that…" Bird's eyebrows lowered.

"Yes." He hummed with a laugh, holding the new decoration out for display as he proudly smiled, putting his stained teeth on display.

In his arms was none other than Grace's severed head, now mounted on a wooden stand for display.

"Oswald!" Bird's voice hurt her own ears and made the throbbing in her head even worse.  
Pulling in a breath and trying to get a handle on herself, she said, "What have you been doing this entire time? Just sitting here with her body decaying around you and -and rancid food? You haven't showered or changed clothes even."

With a sniffle, he rubbed his nose with the back of his free hand and then made an attempt at straightening out his suit jacket, "I'm aware I'm a bit disheveled. I've been rather lost since you left." He explained, "Aimless, if you will. Until tonight when I saw the news."

"Then you know?" Bird asked.

"That Theo Galavan walks among us once again?" Oswald smiled, "I do."

Strangely enough, it had been the sight of his former adversary's face that had given him the strength to pick up and get moving with his life again.

It had very much felt like he'd been stuck in place after Bird had left last.

Grace and her children were all dead, Bird had talked of starting a job in her family's company and seemed rather off-put at his idea to cook up Charles and Sasha to feed them to their mother.

He'd been comfortable in the house after she left.

No one to impress, no one around at all.  
He'd gotten used to the smell of death and decay to the point that he would sometimes even forget about the rotting body in the dining room.

There was plenty of food in the kitchen to last him and being so shut off from everything and everyone, he hadn't felt the need to shower or change clothes.

One day had been blurring into the next with no end in sight.  
That was until he'd turned on the TV and was met by the sight of Theo Galavan's face.

Finally, the loop had been broken and there was a reason to see tomorrow; to kill Galavan all over again.

In the hours since, he'd called in someone to get rid of Grace's body.  
Well, the rest of her body; he was keeping her head for decoration, he'd been upstairs picking out clean clothes and was getting ready to draw up a bath when he heard a car pull up outside and looked through the window to see a taxi.

"Are you alright, Bird?" He asked, taking a step closer to her.  
The news coverage he'd seen had began with Theo Galavan jumping from the roof of the police station building and landing on-top of a van, then mere minutes later had shown Bird rushing out of the station and promptly tripping and falling to the ground with blood from a previous injury running down her face.

"I don't know." She admitted with a weak smile that slowly faded from her lips.

Every minute that ticked by since she'd seen Galavan again hadn't felt real.  
Every step she'd taken had felt like her legs were being swallowed up in a pit of quicksand.

"The last thing I remember is going home after the shootout at the police department." Bird explained, her brows furrowing as she spoke, "One minute I was there and then the next I'm in a car headed up the drive here."

•••

"I don't think he knows who he is." Bird explained as she sat across from Oswald in the front sitting room.  
Reaching forward and picking up her cup of tea from the coffee table and shivering from the draft of the wide open windows as they tried to air the mansion out, she added, "Not only is he calling himself Azrael, but-"

"I don't buy into that." Oswald argued as he settled back into the cushion of the high-back chair.

He watched in silence as she reached up and felt the fresh stitches on her scalp to close up the wound she'd gotten from hitting her hear earlier that night when Azrael had thrown her across the police station.

The friends had been reunited for close to three hours now.  
He'd bathed and cleaned himself up in preparation for his return to the city and Bird had called a doctor for herself, then proceeded to open up every window in the large house.

"It's not just that. It's like he doesn't even know what year it is." Bird explained, "He got his hands on a gun and called it 'vile sorcery' when the clip ran out."

Seeing the stunned and confused look on his face, Bird nodded, "Yeah."

For the last several minutes Bird had been filling her best friend in on the new developments that had happened in Gotham City since he'd been keeping himself isolated in his father's house.

"I should have came and checked on you." Bird apologized, her lips pressing into a straight line before she added, "But you should have called me or something."

"Agreed." He nodded with a sip from his own cup of tea, "It shouldn't have taken the resurrection of our arch-nemesis to find a reason to see one another."

When curiosity got the better of him, Oswald questioned, "Why didn't you come back to visit?"

"I don't know."  
Her eyebrows lowered at the knee-jerk response she'd given.

If there was one person she'd never had any trouble being honest with -it was him.  
She wasn't sure at what point that had changed, but it left a bitter taste in her mouth.

Raising her head, she looked at him from under her lashes and knew with the way he was watching her that he didn't buy the excuse either.

That was it.  
That was the reason she'd been avoiding him.

He knew her, at times better than she knew herself and trying to hide something from him was impossible.

For a while now she'd been carrying around the weight of what had really happened to Lilith Wayne around with her.  
Letting everyone -including Jim and Bruce believe her biological mother had taken her own life.

In the beginning, dragging the secret around with her from day-to-day had felt like having the weight of the world chained to her neck, but as more time passed the load had lightened.

Only she and Victor Zsasz knew the truth of what had happened that day.  
No one suspected her and after a certain point she'd started to believe the lie herself.

"Lily is dead." Bird said, breathlessly exhaling her following admission, "I killed her."

"I didn't slit her throat or anything." Bird was quick to add, "I gave her a choice and she chose the path that lead to her demise -but she's dead because of me. I killed her."

Oswald was silent as he heard her confession.  
At first it didn't make much sense about why out of all things the death of her biological mother had been keeping her away.

But then he looked at her closer, the way in which she was avoiding eye contact and had seemed to shrink down in the seat she was in.

There was more.  
Something else she wasn't telling him about.

"Bird?" Oswald questioned.

"That's the first time I've said it that out loud." She continued on as if she hadn't heard him.  
She paused before leading into the next confession, "If Jim finds out… I'll lose him."

There it was.  
The cold, hard truth.

"In order to lose someone, you must first have them."  
Oswald commented.

"Ah!" He realized out loud, "I see."

"It's just…" She ran her tongue over her lips, "When I was with Harvey, it caused so many problems between you and I… and I don't want a repeat of that."

"Say no more." Oswald held up a hand and feigned a smile, "I understand, but you have nothing to worry about."  
He wasn't so sure he could stomach hearing anymore about it.

His eyes fell to where he was now clutching onto the empty cup in his hands.

He could taste blood in his mouth from where he was biting down on the side of his tongue to physically hold back the things he really wanted to say.

Did she really never learn, he wondered.  
Wasn't the pain and heartache she went through with Harvey Dent bad enough?

"You sure you're ready to come back to Gotham?" Bird nodded towards the open windows and tried to change the subject, "It's crazy. The dead are walking among us."

"Yes." He agreed with a nod and unhinged laugh, "But there is no place like home."

••• **the next morning •••**

Taking another drink of her coffee, Bird leaned back in the desk chair in her office and squinted into the sunlight brightened room.

She started to raise her hands up and rub her tired eyes, but quickly stopped herself before she smeared her make-up.

It was going to be an impossibly long day and the only sleep she'd had was in the back of the taxi on the way back into the city earlier that morning.

Picking up her coffee, she downed another swallow at the realization that she probably wouldn't get the chance to sleep until after Galavan had been properly dealt with.

At this point she wasn't even sure where to begin with her tasks for the day, she hated returning business calls, but going over paperwork sounded equally as bad and with her tired eyes she was more than sure that the words would run together.

" _Hey! Stop! You can't just go in there!"_

Bird's eyes went to where the door to her office flew open and Jim walked in; with her secretary Charmaine, right on his heels.

"I'm sorry, he just-" Charmaine was fast to apologize to her boss, but Bird raised a hand and shushed her, "It's okay."

Eyeing Jim and the angry expression he was wearing from where she was standing, Charmaine asked, "Are you sure?"

"Get the door on your way out, please." Bird nodded as she stood to her feet.

Once they were alone, Bird crossed around to the front of her desk, "Hey." She greeted, "Are you okay?"

"No!" Jim's gruffly answered.

"But apparently you are."  
He added as he looked her over.

Aside from the small cuts and bruises on her face and the visible stitches at the top of her forehead disappearing into her hairline, she barely had a hair out of place.

"We find out Theo Galavan is alive and you just disappear!" He angrily yelled, before he was able to pull in a breath and get a hold on his anger.  
Stepping closer to her and lowering his voice, but keeping his tone harsh, he asked, "What happened?"

"I don't know-" Bird began.

"Come on!" Jim whisper-yelled.

"I don't, okay?" She loudly spoke over him, "I went home and I was going to call a doctor like I said and then I just… I don't know, but I just couldn't be there anymore."

"You're really pissed at me." Bird realized, seeming genuinely surprised with the revelation.  
She'd seen him angry before, had even been the cause of it on several occasions, but not like this.  
This was different entirely.

"Yeah?" Jim asked, "How am I supposed to feel? I was out there all night trying to find you. I didn't know if Galavan got to you, if you took off after him on your own or someone else had gotten to you. On top of that you were bleeding from a head injury. You left your keys and your phone behind, your door unlocked and I had no idea if you were okay and I was-"

"Worried about me?" Bird cut in.

"To put it lightly, yeah." He answered, a little calmer than he had been when he'd first arrived.

He'd thought it was a long shot that she'd actually be in her office that morning.  
But he knew just how much her job meant to her and how determined she'd been to prove herself in the position the company had offered.

Jim had known if Bird was able to to get to the office that morning then that would be his best shot at finding her.

"I'm sorry." She apologized, "I was going to call you…"  
Her voice trailed off knowing that -that meant nothing now, not after he'd spent hours on end not even knowing if she was alive.

"Honestly?" Bird questioned, looking at him from under her dark coated lashes and waiting for him to nod before she admitted, "I was a little out of it at the time and then this morning, I didn't call you as soon as I got here because I figured you were so busy with GCPD-slash-Azrael stuff that you probably hadn't noticed I was gone. I was planning on calling to check in at lunch."

This time it was his face that twisted up in confusion.  
Hadn't noticed? How could he have not noticed that she was gone?

This was uncharted territory for her.  
Unfamiliar waters that she was still learning how to navigate.

In other relationships; both platonic and romantic, she was always the one who was fiercely protective over the ones important to her.

She'd always felt like when it came down it, that she needed the other person more than they needed her.

What she hadn't realized until that moment was just how much she meant to him.

When he was in Blackgate, she and Bullock were the only ones who'd visited him; they ended up being the only friends he really had.

And even though he'd been exonerated -he didn't really have anyone else besides the two of them still.

The only family she'd heard him mention was an uncle he hadn't seen in years.

Just like she'd been trying so hard to pick up the pieces of her life after what she'd gone through, Jim was also trying to put the pieces of his own puzzle back into place.

He'd been clinging to her like she was all he had because in many ways she was.

"How could you think I wouldn't notice-" He started to ask, but couldn't finish his sentence when Bird stepped forward and kissed him.

"I'm sorry." She whispered after pulling back, "I screwed up. I -I should have left a note so you'd know I was okay, or called-"

"Or not ran off in the middle of the night?" Jim added as the last traces of his anger faded away.

"That too." Bird gave a soft smile.

"You don't need to worry." Bird promised, going in for another kiss, "I'm okay. I went to see Oswald."

Leaning back, Jim's eyebrows raised, "You tell me not to worry and then follow it up by saying you ran off in the middle of the night to see another man?"

He caught a glimpse of the startled look on her face before it gave way to another smile as she realized he was joking, she chuckled and laid her hands on his chest.  
Wordless, she shook her head before pressing her mouth to his again.

He hadn't known it, but her bond with Oswald had been the source of many fights between her and Harvey while they were together.

"Wait…" Jim pulled back, "Why did you go to see him?"

Taking a step back from him, Bird pulled in a breath knowing he wasn't going to like the answer.  
But just as she insisted on total honesty from him, she was doing her best to be as honest and upfront with him as she could -within reason.

"Galavan's alive." Bird offered up a shrug, "And I guess I just needed to talk to someone who knows how that makes me feel."

"I know-" Jim insisted, but Bird cut him off, "He tried to take everything from Oswald and I."

"He took something from us all." Jim reminded her.

"It's not the same, Jim." Her gaze fell to the floor and she let out a small sigh, "You weren't there."

She knew she was far from the only person whose life had been dismantled by Theo Galavan, but he'd targeted her and her brother above everyone else and had taken nearly everything from her best friend.

There weren't many people who understand just how deep the hatred flowed through her when it came to him.

"Fair enough." He conceded, "But I want him brought to justice just as much as you…"  
His voice trailed off when she cocked her head to the side and stared back at him with a look in her eyes that showed there was only one day she'd accept the Galavan situation ending and it didn't involve putting him behind bars.

"That's why you went to see him." Jim realized, disappointment apparent on his face, "Because he wants Galavan dead."

"I want him dead." Bird admitted, "That's the only justice I'm interested in."

"Look…" She breathed, stepping back up to him, "I know you regret what you did. You wish you hadn't killed him, but I don't regret it for a second. The world is just better off without some people in it."

Jim knew there was a high chance that this would all end with Theo Galavan dead -possibly even by his hand again.  
But only if it came down to it being Galavan or someone else.  
A fight, self-defense or protecting someone from him.

It couldn't end the same way it did months ago.  
That wasn't justice.  
It was murder and it was a line he wasn't ever going to let himself cross again.

"Bird." He swallowed hard, "We can't do that. Not this time."

"I'm not asking you to." Bird stated, "But I'm not backing down. I sided with you on how to handle Hugo Strange, but not this."

He opened his mouth.  
Presumably to argue with her again, a speech at the ready of how killing someone was wrong, but there wasn't any combination of words on earth that could talk her down.

"I know. You think it's wrong, but I don't care." She openly admitted, "We're not going to agree on this. I knew it last night at the police station."

There was an apologetic, yet stubborn expression on her face as she stared at him.

She remembered standing on the roof of the police station the night before with Jim promising that Galavan wasn't going to hurt her again.

She hadn't needed Jim to promise her that.  
It was something she already knew; something she was going to make sure of herself.

But she'd known from the look in his eyes when he promised they'd do whatever it took that his first plan and goal would be bringing Galavan in and not ending his life all over again.

•••

"Don't go baby, come on." Butch pleaded with Tabitha as she continued to pack her bag.

"Let's talk about this, okay? Is -is this because I kicked Barbara out?" He asked.

"Just let me go, Butch." Tabitha breathed a sigh.

"Come on." His tone grew frantic, "I'll do whatever you want. I'll eat more fruit. I'll work on the snoring, I swear-"

"Wow." Bird spoke up, alerting them to her presence in the room, "Trouble in paradise?"

When they both spun around to face her, she held up her hands to show them she was unarmed and didn't come there looking to pick a fight.

"What, no Zsasz this time?" Butch questioned, stretching his neck to the side to try and see around her better, "You gonna leave any of my men breathing or take 'em all out again?"

"For the record. I only killed the traitors that pledged their loyalty to Oswald and then bowed down to you." Bird reminded him with a smile creeping across her face, "And I didn't think I needed back up to have a civilized conversation."

"Civilized?" Bullock echoed as he walked into the room with Jim. Throwing an arm out and patting him on the chest, Bullock said, "See partner, I told you we had nothing to worry about."

"Seriously!" Butch yelled as he threw his arms up in the air, "How the hell do people keep getting in here? Do I have no security at all?"

As quietly as she could, Tabitha back stepped, planning to sneak out of the room, but she didn't get the chance, when Bird maneuvered around the room and got in her way.

"Not so fast." Bird said; followed by Bullock adding, "We got a few questions."

"What is this?" Butch asked, his face wrinkled in confusion, "What are you doing with them?" He asked Bird.

"I didn't bring them here." She was quick to defend, her eyes cutting over to where Jim was standing as she asked, "What is this? Did you follow me?"

"No." He answered honestly.  
He'd headed to the police station to talk to Bullock after leaving Bird's office.  
He didn't know that she'd left just minutes after him to chase down her own leads.

"Followed the same line of thought as you, I guess." He added.

"Sounds like you two have a lot to work out, so I'll just be on my way-"  
Tabitha began to say as she tried to slip past Bird but the brunette was quick to move back in her way and take a painfully tight grip on her arm.

"Why the rush?" Jim asked, walking over to them when Tabitha roughly jerked her arm away from Bird.

"Just time to move on." Tabitha tried to play it off, but she knew no one was buying it.

"Oh, yeah, is that it?" Jim asked, his words, tone and posture confrontational, "Or you worried Galavan is coming after you too?"

Butch protectively stepped forward, ready and willing to take on all three of them if they tried to hurt her.

"Come on. Help me find him." Jim tried to get her to work with him as he held up a hand to show Butch he didn't mean her any harm, "You two hardly left on the best of terms."

"Must have been weird seeing your dead brother show up… dressed like a weird ninja from mid-evil times." Bullock commented.

But Tabitha didn't budge -physically or verbally.

"You're scared." Bird read what she was trying to hide from them, her eyes squinted some as she added, "I know I'm not your favorite person. You're certainly not mine -but right now we have an enemy of my enemy sort of situation going down. He might be after Jim right now, but you betrayed your brother -left him to die and at some point we all know he's going to come after you too."

Letting the heavy bag of her belongings fall to the floor with a loud thud, Tabitha walked around her and over to the table where she began to pour herself a drink.

"That thing parading around the city in a mask and attacked the GCPD last night. It wasn't my brother." Tabitha said, raising the glass to her lips to take a drink, "It was a three hundred year old assassin called Azrael."

"Azrael?" Butch repeated back.

"That image I saw on the news. His clothes and the way he moved. It was Azrael. A mythical figure worshiped by the monks who raised my brother. A cold-hearted killing machine sent into the night to kill his master's enemies."  
With another gulp of the top shelf liquor down, Tabitha eyed Jim, "And he wants you."

"An ancient assassin…" Jim nodded.  
The look on his face showed he didn't believe a thing she was saying.

"A legend." Tabitha corrected, "My family used to tell stories of him."

Filling her glass again, Tabitha opened up more, explaining how she wasn't sure if Azrael ever really existed.  
She told them of how her grandfather was an antiquities collector that had been obsessed with Dumas history; he owned the real sword of Azrael.

"I saw it once. It was beautiful." Tabitha told them of the sword, "Forged by the monks themselves. It's said to hold supernatural powers. It's possible that Theo might try to steal it back."

Her best guess was that her brother would be seeking out the real sword, since the one he'd been using had been broken the night before.

"You saying Galavan really believes he's this Azrael?" Bullock pushed for more information.

"You tell me." She answered with attitude, "He convince you he was or did it seem like he was just pretending?"

When no one said anything, she nodded with a somber and knowing expression, "Someone got inside of my brother's head and that is not a safe place to be."

"I want to find that person." Jim assured her, "But first I need to find your brother. Tell me where I can find your grandfather."

"Gotham Cemetery." Tabitha walked closer to where they were standing, "He's been dead for twenty years, but he was buried with his treasures."

•••

"I don't understand why we can't compromise." Bird's arms crossed over her chest as she stood outside with Jim while they waited on Tabitha to come with them to the cemetery to show them exactly where the Dumas mausoleum was located.

Jim's eyebrows went up, but before he could start on his counter argument, Bird added in, "I want to kill Strange, but I compromised and agreed to go after him legally… but you can't do the same thing in this situation?"

"Bird…" Jim shook his head, "There is compromise and then there's murder. You're asking me to just let you murder someone-"

"No." Bird cut in, "I'm not asking you to _let_ me do anything."

"Wrong choice of words." Jim conceded, not wanting this disagreement to turn into an argument over something else entirely, "But you are asking me to just stand back and do nothing."

"Yes, I am." Bird looked over as a car drove down the street, "You regret what happened before with Galavan, so I'm not asking for your help. All I'm asking is that you stay out of my way on this."

Jim stared at her, his eyes locking with hers when she turned back and he knew without a doubt how set she was on making sure that Theo Galavan, going by his own name or Azrael; wouldn't live to see another sunrise.

And while he understood where she was coming from, it had to end differently this time around.

There was a near scowl as her face as she stared back him, entirely unable to comprehend why he couldn't just turn the other cheek and let her handle this.

They'd been fighting on the same side for so long now that it was beginning to feel strange standing on opposite sides of a problem that involved them both, but Bird was determined to do what she had to do.

"I don't want to fight with you." Bird said aloud.

"Me either." Jim agreed, but the stubborn look in his eyes showed he still wasn't caving from what he believed was the right way to handle this.

"But Galavan has to die." Bird added in, giving him the same expression and also unwilling to cave at all from her own views.

"Do you hear yourselves?"

Startled the couple looked over to where Bullock had been standing for some time now.

His entire face was twisted up while his eyes darted between them.

"You're standing out here arguing over killing a guy." Bullock pointed out, wondering how their own conversation hadn't sounded entirely ridiculous to their own ears.

When he heard the door to the house open, Bullock looked behind him to see a frustrated Tabitha walking outside alone.  
Her agreeing to go with GCPD and Bird had only started another disagreement between her and Butch.

"For the record." Bullock spoke in a quieter tone as he looked back to Jim and Bird, "I'm with crazy eyes on this."

Since Captain Barnes was currently incapacitated, the GCPD had decided to look to him for leadership.  
A role he'd never really wanted to play had suddenly been forced upon him and he felt like someone had just shoved him into the deep end with nothing to help keep him afloat.

The quicker this Azrael situation was said and done -the better.

Bird beamed a bright smile at his words before turning back to Jim with look on her face that practically screamed for him to just jump on board with the plan that everyone else seemed to be game for.

Jim shook his head, his expressions painted with varying shades between exhausted and annoyed as he watched his former partner start to walk over to the driver's side of the car.

•••

Bullock blew out a breath of relief when they finally pulled through the main entrance of the cemetery.  
Even though it was only about a fifteen minute car ride, the awkward silence between the unlikely company inside of the car had made it feel like a three day road trip.

"This is it." Tabitha said as she pointed towards one of, if not the actual oldest, above ground crypts in the cemetery.  
As the car pulled to a stop and she opened her door to get out, she added, "Dozens of my relatives are buried here."

Once they'd got the gate open -with the help of a crowbar, Jim was the first one to reach the doors to the mausoleum.  
He was hit in the face with a blast of musty air right as he got the door pulled open.

Bullock turned his head to the side and coughed from the dust he'd breathed in; felt like the dust had settled in his lungs, he could even taste it on his tongue.

Bird slid past where Jim was standing and Tabitha was right behind her.

"Oh, come on!" Bullock complained, halting to an abrupt stop when a rather large rat scurried across the paved floor right in front of him. "You've got to be kidding me." He mumbled under his breath.

But neither Bird or Tabitha seemed phased by the furry pests as they walked further into the large mausoleum with Jim just steps behind them.

Sunlight seeping in from the still open door helped illuminate the dark space.  
As did the light shining through an old stained glass window which cast a rainbow glow over the tops of of the cement tops of the many Dumas' tombs.

"This one." Tabitha announced, the pointed heels of her thigh high boots clicked with the cement as she walked closer to one of the more central tombs. Patting her hand against the dust covered surface she turned back to the group, "My grandfather's."

Jim didn't waste any time in walking over to it, but Bullock was more hesitant, "Wait. Wait. Wait." He held his hand up, "I'm sure we're breaking more than a few laws right now."

"Really?" Jim nearly laughed, "This is where you draw the line?"

"This doesn't creep you out?" Bullock argued, side-eyeing a cobweb covered knight armor off to the side, "Not even a little bit?"

"Nope." Bird gave him a smile as she stepped up beside Jim.

"Come on!" He yelled at them, "It's friggin' grave robbing!"

"Whatever it takes, Harvey." Jim reminded him of the exact same words he'd used to inspire the GCPD force in the speech he'd given at the station earlier.

"Come on…" Bullock mumbled again while he watched Bird and Jim both inspect the tomb, trying to figure out the easiest way to go about opening it.

"This…" He breathed, pointing between them, "I don't like. One of your is rubbing off on the other and I'm not sure which one yet, but I don't like it."

"Don't be such a baby." Bird playfully taunted with raised brows.

"Hey!" Bullock's voice echoed through the space over the sound of the metal scraping cement while Jim used the crow bar to raise the cover of the tomb enough for them to start sliding it off.  
Pointing a finger in her direction Bullock defended, "I'm no baby."

"Yeah?" Jim questioned through gritted teeth as he and Bird tried to move the impossibly heavy cement slab, "A little help then?"

Sighing, Bullock looked over to see Tabitha take a few steps back.  
She might have been willing to lead them to her grandfather's treasure, but that didn't mean she was going to help them rob his grave.

It took all three of them to finally move the top, but after a struggle they were able to rotate it enough to the side that they revealed the skeleton inside -surrounded by golden antiquities and just as they'd been told -a sword.

Waving her hand through the air to break up all the dust that had been stirred Tabitha explained, "That was said to be Azrael's sword up until the very end."

"He died?" Jim asked.

"No. He disappeared. Azrael's thought to be immortal." She filled them in on all the tales she'd grown up listening to.

In her house these were usual bedtime stories.

Reaching into the tomb, Jim pulled the sword out and upon closer inspection, he agreed with what Tabitha had told them earlier, "It really is beautiful."

"Yeah." Bird agreed.

"I'll take that."

Within a matter of mere seconds Galavan had disarmed Bullock, who'd been the closest to the entrance, and knock him out cold.

He caught sight of Bird from the corner of his eyes and pushed the cement slab from the open tomb into her side, where she was knocked down and just barely managed to scoot out of the way in time before it fell right where she'd landed and would have surely crushed half the bones in her body.

Jim tossed the sword to Tabitha to hold as he drew his gun and fired round after round, but just like before, every single bullet was deflected by the armor Azrael was dressed in.

Azrael grabbed the metal spear the knight armor was display was equipped with and hurled it at Jim, but he was able to duck down out of danger.

Bird had just managed to get raised up on one side when she saw Azrael throw Jim across the top of another tomb.

"James Gordon." Azrael's voice boomed, "Time. To. Die."  
With the last word, he kicked him hard enough that Jim's body went flying out of the open doors and rolled violently down the steps outside.

Holding onto her injured side, Bird frantically looked around trying to locate something within reach that she could use as a weapon against him.

Azrael's foot steps sounded heavy enough to belong to a man three times his size as he made his way towards to the doors to finish Jim off, but before he could Tabitha jumped in the way and slammed the doors shut.

"Step aside. He must die." Azrael ordered.

Bird crawled behind the side of a tomb and spied on the siblings while keeping herself out of sight for the time being.

"It's me brother." Tabitha said, "Don't you recognize me?"

"My quarrel is not with you. Step aside."

"Tabitha." She reminded him, locking the doors to the mausoleum behind her so she'd have a chance to try and talk to her brother before Jim would surely try to get back inside, "Your sister."

Walking up to him, she hoped he'd recognize her but she was unable to see his eyes peering back at her from behind the mask that covered his face.

"Tabitha?" Galavan questioned.

"Yes. That's right." She nodded, looking down as he took the sword from her hands.  
She then reached up and lifted his mask so she could finally see his face again.

"You remember where we grew up?" She asked him, her voice soft, "The estate by the sea? Before the monks took you? Our dogs and the horses?" She tried her best to smile but her chin started to quiver, "We were happy once."

"You are Theo Galavan." Her voice raised, "My brother."

"Theo…" He repeated.  
Sounding strained, as if the name would barely leave his mouth,

"Yes!" She breathed with a sigh of relief.  
Her eyes squinted when she saw his head started to jerk and his eyes pinned shut.

"Do you remember now?" She questioned.

"Bruce Wayne." Galavan spoke in a clear and determined voice.

Bird's eyes widened from where she was still watching them and any trace of relief on Tabitha's face gave way to worry as Galavan remembered, "We were sent to kill him."

"We… yes, we were, but that's over-" Tabitha tried to argue.

"He dishonored our family name." Galavan continued.

"Wait… no."

"Death to the son of Gotham." Galavan spoke over her before he plunged Azrael's sword into her abdomen.

At first Tabitha didn't even realize she'd been stabbed.  
It hadn't felt like something sharp cutting into her skin -it felt more like a punch.

Like she'd been hit with something so hard it knocked the wind right out of her.

But when he pulled the blade back out and she felt her own blood starting to soak her clothes, there was no mistaking the gaping wound for anything other than what it was.

Her legs gave way and she fell to the ground, not able to speak yet as she clutched onto the heavily bleeding stab wound.

"Thank you for reminding me." Galavan said as he stared down to his fallen sister.  
He took another look around the inside of the family crypt, but Bird had already ducked back out of sight and all he spotted was Bullock; still unconscious on the floor.

Jumping up on one of the tombs, Azrael then leapt sideways onto an upper ledge before breaking through the glass ceiling of the mausoleum.

Bird closed her eyes and covered her head and neck with her arms until she didn't hear the glass raining down anymore.  
The only sound left was Tabitha's heavy breathing and pained whimpers.

"Well." Bird groaned as she pulled herself to her feet with a hiss of pain. It felt like someone had taken a hammer to her left side where the cement slab had been pushed against her.  
"Great job, Tabby." She said, slowly clapping as she moved in closer to the wounded woman still gasping for air where she lay on the floor.

"I…" Tabitha tried to say as blood ran from the corner of her mouth. Coughing and spitting it up, she apologized, "I'm sorry."

"Sorry?" Bird let out a laugh and immediately regretted it when sharp pains shot through her entire body, "Sorry for what exactly? Almost killing me earlier this year or setting your lunatic brother on a mission to try and kill Bruce again? Hmm?"

With a loud cry of pain as she tried to sit up, Tabitha gasped for air and raised her head, her eyes locking with Bird's when she confessed, "For all of it."

Bird's eyebrows lowered when she realized Tabitha actually meant what she was saying.

"I'm sorry." She repeated with tears starting to fill her eyes to the brim.

Standing in place, Bird watched for several seconds while Tabitha started to cough and sputter on the blood in her mouth.

With a sigh, Bird finally leaned down and hooked her arms underneath Tabitha's, putting herself in a great deal of pain as she dragged her body to the closet tomb and propped her up against it so he could breathe a little easier.

Tabitha's vision was growing fuzzy as she looked down to her blood covered hands, but no longer possessed the strength to try and apply pressure to the stab wound.

Kneeling down next to her, Bird waited until Tabitha turned her head to look at her before she stated, "I'm going to kill him, you know?"

"I know." She whispered nodding her head against the cement she was propped up against.

There was only one way this all could end and she understood that now.  
This man in a cape running around the city wasn't her brother -it was something else wearing his face.

She'd already lost her brother.  
In many ways Tabitha felt like she'd lost him years before, back when the monks first took him away from his training.

Swallowing down the lump in her throat, Tabitha's mouth had taken on a coppery taste from her own blood. Looking to where was Bird was still knelt beside her, she said, "He's my brother. I… I had to try."

"I know." Bird said as she started to pull her own coat off.

Folding it up in her hands, Bird leaned over Tabitha and pressed the balled up fabric against the wound to try and slow the bleeding.

Tabitha's body jerked from the white hot pain that shot through her and she screamed out into the enclosed space loud enough that the echo hurt her own head.

With a groan Bullock's eyes blinked open, raising his head he tried to locate who'd made the cry of pain he'd just heard.

Hearing movement, Bird looked over her shoulder to where Bullock was struggling to get sat up.

"Welcome back." Bird greeted, before focusing back on trying to keep Tabitha awake and slow the bleeding she called out, "We need an ambulance."

Staggering to his feet, Bullock's eyes widened as he saw the thick trail of blood on the floor from where Bird had dragged Tabitha over to help her sit up.

Suddenly, his hands felt all thumbs as she struggled to get his cellphone out and call for help.

By the time Jim had woken up and managed to make his way back inside the mausoleum, he was met by the gory sight of blood smeared across the floor. Bird still tending to Tabitha's wound and Bullock sitting against a tomb next to the two women.

"He got away, Jim." Bullock was still short of breath from the pain his head and body were in, "Back ups on the way."

Following the crimson trail, Jim couldn't hide the look of shock on his face as he watched Bird trying her best to save the life of the very same person who'd shot and came so close to killing her months ago.

Nodding to his partner, Jim knelt down on the other side of Tabitha. He reached out to lift Bird's coat from where she was using it to apply pressure to the wound, so he could see how badly Tabitha was injured, but Bird shook her head at him.

"It's really bad." Bird spoke in a matter-of-fact tone as she added, "She's probably gonna die. But then again -I pulled through, so who knows."

"I can hear you." Tabitha reminded her, with an attempt at a laugh that ended in a violent coughing fit.

If someone had told her months ago that her own brother would try and kill her and the person trying to help her would be Starling Wayne, she'd have bet every cent she owned against it.

Funny how life works out sometimes.

"I'm sorry." Tabitha gasped for air as the coughing slowed, "Bruce…" She tried to tell Jim, but sweat beaded across her face and she was finding it harder and harder to speak.

"What?" Jim pushed leaning in to try and hear her airy voice better.

"Death to the son of Gotham." Bird spoke up, glancing across Tabitha's body to him and explaining everything he needed to know in one simple sentence.

Bird watched as all the color drained from his face and she nodded, "Still think we should try and bring him in alive?"

"We have to find Bruce." Jim stated the obvious, not understanding at the moment why Bird wasn't rushing off to find her brother.

"Already called Alfred." Bullock spoke up, "Bruce is somewhere in the city."

Nodding Bird explained, "Alfred doesn't know where he is, so I highly doubt Galavan's going to be able to find him right now. In fact, his running off into the city is probably the best case scenario right now."

Sensing that Bird already had a plan that she was apparently keeping to herself, Jim paused before questioning, "What are you going to do?"

"Try and keep her alive until the paramedics get here." She simply answered.

"Uh-huh." Jim said with a single nod, "And then what?"

Wordlessly, Bird glanced back up at him and then turned her attention back to Tabitha as she ordered, "Hey! Keep your eyes open."

It was just a few minutes later that the cemetery was a sea of flashing lights from all the patrol cars and ambulances that started to arrive.

Bird did exactly what she said she was going to do and managed to keep Tabitha awake and alive until the paramedics rushed in to take over and move her to the hospital.

"Where are you going?" Jim called after Bird as he caught up with her outside as the ambulance drove away.

"Galavan has to die." She offered up the truth.  
The same thing she'd been saying for months on end.

Turning back around, she started to walk away but he stopped her, "You can't do this on your own, Bird. He's cut down a good chunk of the GCPD by himself-"  
He'd started to remind her how Galavan was now stronger than any one man should be. That he was more like an unstoppable force at this point and it would be suicide to go after something like alone.

"I'm not alone." Bird interrupted.

"Okay." Jim nodded, his hand grabbing onto hers as she tried to walk away again, "Then let me help you."

"I don't need your help."  
Her lips puckered at the way the comment had sounded when she didn't intend for it come out so harshly.

Shaking her head, Bird reiterated, "When it comes down to it, Jim… we have vastly different methods of handling these sort of situations and as bad as this sounds -I don't need your conscience getting in my way right now."

"Bird-" Jim's face twisted up at her words.

"I'm sorry." She earnestly said.

He opened his mouth to promise her that he wasn't going to stand in her way.  
That they might have started the day with opposing views on how to take down Azrael, but they were on the same page now.

Truth be told, he now saw he should have been on her side the entire time -but he'd hoped so deeply there would be a chance at resolving this case a different way this time around.

Theo Galavan wasn't going to stop.  
He was never going to give up and there was truly one way way to put a stop to his continuing reign of terror.

"Gordon!"

Jim turned his head to where one of the officers at the scene was calling out to him.

Holding up his hand to signal that he'd be there in a minute, he turned back to talk to Bird.  
To finally admit that she'd been right all along and he'd help her do whatever it took to protect Bruce, but he never got the chance.

She was gone.

Turning in a circle, he looked around the cemetery, but didn't catch sight of her.

"Damn it." He muttered under his breath, his gaze went to the car they'd came there in but it wasn't drive-able now, not since Galavan had sliced all four tires as his way out of the cemetery.

A line of three more patrol cars pulled into the cemetery with their sirens and lights going. With his eyes locked on them, he jogged over to where the first one in line was slowing to a stop.

Jerking the door open before the car was even at a full stop, Jim gruffly said, "I need this car!"

Shifting into park, the uniformed officer got out of the car and argued, "You're not a cop anymore Gordon-"

Jim roughly grabbed onto the sides of the officer's jacket and shoved him out of the way, "I need the damn car!"  
Without another word to anyone he got into the patrol car and sped off.

•••

* * *

 **A/N - Thank you for reading!  
Bird's always running off on Jim. Lol**

 **I feel like I haven't said it in a few chapters, so if any of you are on Tumblr and interested in seeing any edits I've done for my stories or anything like that you can find me there at twofacedharveydent. I also gif the show quite a bit.**

 **Anyways, I really want to thank everyone who's reviewed since my last update: xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, Shadow knight1121, DancingDorisDay, SusieQ, Love. Fiction. 2018, PetrovaLover, Munyue, amelia, Feldman and the Guests who were all kind enough to leave some feedback.**

 **So close the end of season 2!**

 **I really hope you all enjoyed the chapter and that you'll take the time to review and let me know what you thought. ^_^**


	32. Don't Say I Didn't Warn You

**XXXII**

" _Doubt is an uncomfortable condition, but certainty is a ridiculous one." - Voltaire_

* * *

•••

Butch looked from all the hospital machinery down to Tabitha's face.

Reaching out, he trailed a hand down the side of her face, sadness filling his heart at how off-color her skin appeared.

She'd lost a lot of blood and spent the last several hours in surgery.

Somehow she'd managed to pull through, but now she was in a coma and when Butch had asked when she'd wake up -he'd been told it wasn't a matter of when, it was more a matter of if.

 _If_ she'd wake up at all.

"Why'd you have to go and be brave, huh?" He asked, his fingertips trailing over the familiar feel of her skin and the soft hair on her arm as he moved to hold onto her hand, "I just got used to you being around. Partners, right?"

The doctor had told him that talking to her could increase the likelihood of her waking up.  
Give her something to hold onto and find her way back.

Only he was at a loss of what to say.

"How…" His voice shook, "How am I supposed to keep people in line now, huh? I don't think I can do this without you."

Tears welled up in his eyes, "You're one of the only people in the world who looks me in the eye when they talk to me, you know that? You laugh at my jokes. You actually like the way I look. I didn't think I'd ever feel like this again."

"I guess what I'm trying to say is… I… I…" He grew too choked up to talk anymore.  
Tears started to run down his cheeks and he lowered his head, resting it on her shoulder as his tears started to soak into the hospital gown they'd dressed her in.

"Well don't stop now. I was just getting misty."

Jerking his head up, Butch wiped his face and glared at Oswald who'd been silently standing in the room for several minutes now. "What are you doing here?"

"Paying my respects." Oswald smiled, displaying the bouquet of flowers he'd picked up in the gift shop on his way up to the room.

Hobbling over to the foot of Tabitha's bed, he laid the flowers down on the table and commented, "She's looked better. I must say…"

"You will not hurt her." Butch spoke in a domineering tone.  
He wasn't about to let anything else happen to the woman who'd made him feel alive again.

"Why would I do that?" Oswald questioned, feigning a look of wonder before going, "Oh, I know! Could it be because she shot Bird and nearly killed her, or hmm, because she stabbed my mother in the back!"

Butch drew his gun at Oswald's outburst.  
He'd always been unpredictable.

While he was working under Oswald, he'd seen him flip and beat his own employees to within an inch of their lives for delivering him bad news on several occasions.

Aiming the gun right between the shorter man's eyes, Butch threatened, "If you touch her-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Bird called out as she walked into the room. Her eyes narrowing at Butch as she saw the weapon he had within a few inches of her best friend's face, "What the hell are you doing?"

"Bird!" Oswald called out, "There you are."

Up until just a few moments prior, he'd believed she'd been right behind him, but apparently something had side tracked her on the way from the gift shop up to the fourth floor of the hospital.

"Sorry." She apologized, "I got distracted."

Oswald's eyes fell to the glitter covered vase of flowers she was holding in her hands and he couldn't help but smile at her, "I should have known."

Bird had always had an affinity for shiny things and weakness when it came to glitter.

"Butch." She complained, walking over and putting her hand on his arm to lower the gun, "Put the weapon down. We're not here to hurt her."

A growing look of confusion painted his features as he watched Bird set the vase of flowers down on the table next to where Oswald had left his bouquet.

Bird and Penguin were two of the strangest people he'd ever met and at this point he had no idea what to think of their impromptu visit to Tabitha's hospital room.  
Especially since they were both bearing gifts.

"If I really wanted her dead, I wouldn't have helped her after her brother impaled her with a sword." She spoke in a calm, but near emotionless tone.

"Yeah." Butch's brows raised and he kept a hold on his gun, which was now lowered to his side, "Why did you help her?"

He'd recognized the blood stained coat in the bag of belongings the hospital had given him with Tabitha's clothes and personal items, as the same coat Bird had been wearing earlier that day.

And one of the paramedics had told him that had it not been for the first aide Bird had done within the moments after Tabitha had been injured that she wouldn't have made it.  
He'd just been having a hard time figuring out her motives.

"Oh, you know me." Bird shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal, "Always had a weakness for a pretty face."

Oswald nodded in agreement with her and Butch was even more lost as he looked between the best friends, but his expression did soften as his eyes met hers and he said, "Whatever your reason behind it… thank you."

"You're welcome." Bird beamed a smile, catching Butch off guard.

"Hmm…" Oswald hummed with a smile of his own, "I like this side of you, Butch. Soft and sentimental."

A chill ran down Butch's spine as he stared at them.

For two people who were rather small and unimposing in stature there was something chilling about the air in the room seemed to shift as they stood there smiling at him.

If they'd started laughing, he thought they'd look comparable to couple of hungry hyenas.

"Galavan has to pay Butch." Oswald was the first to speak again.

"Azrael?" Butch questioned.

"No!" Oswald shouted, "Galavan. See, I will not buy this whole uber villain nonsense. I mean if he wanted to wear leather, he should just wear leather. This is Gotham City -no one cares, right?"

"We're on the same side, Butch." Bird promised, "And none of us are safe until Galavan is dead -again."

"We've all suffered by his hand." Oswald added, "Me, you, Bird and her brother, my mother and now his own sister.. Galavan must die."

Realizing that indeed the pair was not there to hurt Tabitha, Butch finally put his gun away  
They were there because they needed help bringing a common enemy down.

"Come on, Butch." Bird tried to persuade him, "The three of us together again. It'll be just like old times."

"Yeah?" He questioned, "And what about Gordon?"

Through a strained smile, Bird tried not to think about how she'd ran off Jim yet again and breathed, "We have different ideas on how to tackle this problem."

"Go figure." Oswald commented, earning himself an unamused look from Bird before she looked back to Butch and said, "My brother isn't safe until Galavan is dead. Oswald isn't safe. Jim isn't safe, I'm not safe… Tabitha and you, as well. None of us can move on until he's gone."

"Okay." Butch finally agreed with a heavy sigh, "What's the plan?"

•••

"He's here." Alfred said into the phone as he called Jim to let him know that Bruce had returned back to Wayne Manor, "And he's safe."

"Thank God." Jim breathed as he jogged back to where he'd left the car parked, "What about-"

Knowing he was about to ask about Bird, Alfred frowned, "Still no sign of Lady Wayne. Seems your calls aren't the only ones she's dodging tonight."

"Okay." Jim got into the car and shut the door, starting the engine, "I'm on my way. You both stay safe."

Bruce finished clearing the books from the shelf in the study that had a hidden safe.  
Ever since he'd stolen a gun from his sister and taken off to kill Matches Malone, Alfred had been keeping his own pistol locked in the safe that Bruce didn't know the combination too.

He watched as Alfred got to work on entering the combination and opening the safe.  
Earlier that day, long before they knew Galavan would be coming after him, he'd pleaded with Alfred to let him go into the city.

They'd had a small disagreement in which Alfred reminded Bruce that he is his legal guardian and that was why he had the right to tell him no.  
But it had ended with Alfred honoring Thomas and Martha's wishes to let their son make his own decisions and against his better judgment he'd let him go.

Peering inside the safe to where stacks of cash were left after the gun was removed, Bruce walked over to his butler who was loading the clip into the gun and admitted, "You're more to me than just an guardian, Alfred."

Stopping in the middle of what he was doing, Alfred turned to face the youngest Wayne with raised brows.

"You're my friend." Bruce admitted, guilt showing on his face for how he'd acted earlier that day.

"Your timing really is quite impeccable, Master Bruce." Alfred commented with a shake of the head.

"Aw." Bird pouted from the doorway, "Did I miss a family moment?"

"There you are!" Alfred called out, relief flooding over his features to see she was for the most part unharmed.

Bruce gave his sister a smile, glad to have her there and know she was safe, he told her, "Detective Gordon has been looking for you."

Nodding, Bird stepped further into the room with her arms crossed over her chest.

"He's worried, Lady Wayne." Alfred added.

"Yeah." Bird nodded, "That's what you do when you're in a relationship with someone."

Her arms fell to her sides and she admitted for the first time out loud to anyone other than Oswald, "Jim and I are together now."

Bird's eyes widened as she looked back and forth between her brother and Alfred as she waited on a response.

"I thought so." Bruce finally admitted. Giving his older sister a smile.

"You two…" Alfred breathed, motioning between the siblings, "Have the worst timing of anyone I've ever met."

"I'm happy for you, Lady Wayne." Alfred continued, "But for the moment we need to button down the hatches…" His voice trailed off as he noticed a strap going diagonally across Bird's body and saw something behind her back, "What have you got there?"

"Oh!" Bird exclaimed, walking closer to them as she reached back and pulled a sword from it's sheath, she proudly displayed the weapon, "I made a stop on the way here."

"You're going to kill Galavan… with a sword?" Bruce questioned, wearing the same expression as Alfred.

"No." Bird sighed, re-holstering the weapon, "I'm going to hold him off from killing us until my friends arrive." She explained, "Guns are useless. His armor is pretty much bulletproof. But he's got Azrael's sword and all I need to do is fend him off for a while longer."

"Friends?" Bruce asked, "What friends?"

"Okay…" Alfred breathed, "We haven't got time for nonsense right now. We have to make sure all of the doors are locked and the windows are closed and the lights are out; we need to make it as hard as possible for Galavan to find us."

"Detective Gordon is sure he's coming here?" Bruce asked.

"Well nothing is certain, is it? So we need to be ready-" Alfred began but Bird interrupted, "He'll be here. His number one priority is ending the Wayne bloodline."

"Then we should split up." Bruce said.

The trio agreed to split up and cover more ground in less time. To lock the house up as securely as possible and meet back down in the study.  
The plan was to hide out in the secret room the stairwell behind the fireplace led to.

Alfred insisted on taking the downstairs, figuring that would be the first point of entry of someone trying to break in.

Bird started to close up the back of the downstairs and then planned on going up to help her brother.  
She'd just finished closing her last downstairs window and pulled the drapes across it when her phone rang.

Pulling it from her pocket she saw it was Jim calling.

"Jim." She greeted as she answered the call.

"Where are you?" Jim's voice was rough, his tone and words abrupt -not showing an ounce of the relief that hearing her voice had brought him.

"I'm okay." She insisted, "I'm at Wayne Manor. No sign of Galavan yet."

Blowing a breath into the phone and finally allowing himself to calm down a little since racing out of the cemetery much earlier that day, his tone softened some as he said, "You can't keep disappearing on me like that."

"I had to." Bird argued, as she neared the stair case to go up to the second floor.

"You didn't." Jim was at the ready with argument of his own.

"I did." She insisted.

"What happened to us making a great team?" He questioned, repeating her own words back to her from the night they'd broken into the Internal Affairs evidence room while trying to clear his name.

"We can only be a team if we're on the same side, Jim."

He opened his mouth, but no words came out this time.  
She was right.

"Bird?" Jim asked into the phone when he heard a thud on the other end of the line, but he didn't get a response.  
Instead the line suddenly went dead.

Throwing his phone over into the passenger seat, he switched on the lights and sirens in the patrol car, speeding through the glow and shadows from the city streets after dark.

Bird gripped onto the wood railing to keep her balance after nearly being knocked down the stairs by her brother.

"What's wrong?" She asked at seeing the panicked expression on his young face.  
A look that made her forget all about her cellphone that had went tumbling down the stairs from their collision.

"He's here." Bruce managed to say, "A window was broken upstairs. It has to be him."

Without another word to him, Bird turned and ran down the stairs with her little brother just mere steps behind.

They could hear sounds of a fight ensuing as they neared the study.  
Grunting and thudding, furniture being knocked over and glass breaking, shots fired and the ricochet off metal.

Bruce rounded the corner to the study just in time to see Alfred disarmed, having been knocked to the floor and Galavan above him, raising Azrael's sword into the air.

"Alfred!" He screamed out in fear.

But before any further damage could be done to him, Bird jumped in the way, sword unsheathed and at the ready.

"You!" Galavan smiled, eyeing her face and then down to the sword, "You think you can stop me?"

He should have sought her out in the cemetery earlier that day and went ahead and put a stop to her existence then.

"I think you're a dead man, Theo Galavan." Bird said the exact same thing she'd told him on the night they'd killed him.

"I am no longer flesh and blood." Galavan's voice roared through the room, "I am immortal and I have grown tired of you!" He shouted, bringing his sword down, but Bird blocked the blow with her own blade.

Alfred scrambled to his feet, searching for where his gun had landed.  
Galavan might have been in bulletproof armor, but he wasn't wearing his mask. If he could just get a head-shot in then he could put a stop to this madman once and for all.

Bruce ducked behind one of the chairs, peering over the top as his sister expertly blocked each attempt Galavan made to slice and dice her with the sword.

That was until Galavan backed her against the wall, but Bird managed to duck just in time to avoid being injured.  
She dropped to the floor and quickly crawled between his legs to get away.

Moving quickly, Alfred snatched up the sword Bird had dropped and was at the ready when Galavan spun around after pulling his weapon free of where it had lodged in the wall.

"Immortal!" Alfred snarled between his clenched teeth as the blades sparked upon impact with one another, "Let's see, shall we?"

Deflecting the attack, Alfred knocked Galavan's hands away and managed to land a good blow with the end of the sword handle to his forehead.

With a groan of pain, he stumbled back, giving enough of a interval that the butler was able to lunge at him, tackling him back against the wall.

All appeared as if Alfred was going to maintain the upper hand -until Galavan flipped him over the couch and the butler hit his head on the coffee table on his way down.

Bruce drew Galavan's attention when he let out a horrified gasp while watching Alfred's body fall limp between the table and couch.

"Bruce, go!" Bird shouted as she barreled forward with all of her strength and knocked their enemy to the floor, "Run!" She screamed.

Her sword fighting skills and determination might have been on par with Theo Galavan's, but she wasn't a match for his strength.  
She'd managed to land a couple hard hits while she was on top of him on the floor, but it took little effort for him to kick her off of him.

Leaving Bruce to watch in shock and horror as Galavan picked his sister up and threw her straight through the large window onto a jagged bed of glass outside on the lawn.

Doing as he'd been told, Bruce turned and took off running.  
Not knowing how seriously injured Bird or Alfred were at that point, Bruce knew he had to lead Galavan away from them.

He had to run for his life.  
So he ran for the large garage here his father kept a collection of classic cars.

Turning the lights off, Bruce started checking the cars for keys.  
Sometimes his father would keep a set of keys either above the visor or laying on a front tire.  
Only now he regretted not having paid attention to which cars those were.

"Damn it." Bruce breathed as he checked yet another tire and came up empty handed.

"Don't hide little boy. Face me. Face death." Galavan said as he entered the garage,, "You know the Waynes are a blight upon the city. A selfish, arrogant family. A family with no belief, no honor."

In a scrambled crawl, Bruce ducked behind a different car and felt for keys on the tire as Galavan slowly walked through the large open space, letting the sword he carried scrape against the cement flooring.

"You are your father's only son, Bruce. When I kill you and then your sister -I'll eradicate the Wayne name forever. It will be as thought you never existed…" Galavan's voice trailed off when he caught sight of Bruce's shoes next to the front tire of a sleek back car.

Only, as he got closer he saw that the shoes were the only part of Bruce there.

He'd fallen intro a trap the young Wayne had set.

Starting the car he'd found the keys for, Bruce shifted it into drive and stomped the gas pedal, running right into Galavan and driving with him still on the hood through the garage doors.

Only his body had fallen off somewhere between the garage and the driveway.  
After a bit of maneuvering, Bruce managed to stop the car.

Frantically he looked around for any sight of Galavan -but he didn't see him.

His knuckles turned a ghostly shade of white as he clutched onto the steering wheel.  
He wanted to keep driving.

A part of him was terrified and just wanted to stomp the gas pedal again, get out onto the road and find somewhere safe.

But he couldn't.

It wasn't only him that Galavan planned on murdering.  
He wanted to wipe out the Wayne bloodline and that meant he was just as determined to kill Bird.

Switching gears into park, his breathing was heavy and erratic as he stepped out of the car onto the paved driveway in his socked feet.

Running around he checked under the front of the car, hoping that somehow he'd trapped Galavan underneath and he hadn't managed to walk away.

Standing up, Bruce looked around as he tried to formulate a plan.  
If he couldn't find their attacker, then he needed to get to his sister and then Alfred.

But before could take another step, a leather whip was wrapped around his neck with so much force he felt like his head was going to explode.

Gasping for air, his feet kicked against the pavement.  
He desperately clutched onto the whip as Galavan dragged him along until he collapsed on his knees.

This was it, Bruce thought was his vision grew fuzzier, his chest ached like he had the full weight of an adult elephant sitting on it.

But just when he was sure this was the end, the pressure was gone from his neck.

Falling onto his side, all Bruce could do was make noises as he gasped for air, feeling like his throat would never recover.

Leaning down, Bird removed the end of the the whip she'd just sliced apart from her brother's neck and then turned to face down their enemy.

"Did you steal that from your sister before or after you tried to kill her?" Bird questioned, slightly swaying from side to side.

Her entire body felt like one huge bruise and there was still a rather large shard of glass sticking out from her arm from where she'd gone through the window.  
But luckily she had her wits about her enough to leave it in instead of pulling the object out.

"Enough!" Galavan huffed.  
He was in more pain from the collision with the car than he'd care to admit.  
"Enough… fun and games. It's time for you both to die."

He took a staggering step forward, reaching back for where he had Azrael's sword holstered.

" **NO!** "  
Bird's voice roared out of her like a lion, even catching Galavan off guard.

Gasping for a breath and reaching up to wipe the mixture of blood and sweat from her face, Bird's chest heaved as she screamed, "You will not touch my brother again!"

"You're going to stop me?" Galavan seemed amused by the notion.

"Bruce, get in the car." Bird's voice was airy as she spoke to him, but never took her eyes off of Galavan, as she continued her instructions to her brother, "Get out of here."

"No…" He hoarsely cried out, still clawing at his own neck while continuing his ongoing struggle for a breath.

"Very well." Galavan said, "First and foremost, I came for the boy, but you were never going to survive this either."

Bruce scrambled as he tried to get to his feet, he didn't know what he was going to do or if there was anything he even could do, but he wasn't going to get back in the car and leave her there.

"I remember." Galavan said, "You told me once that you'd rather die on your feet than live on your knees."  
He raised his sword up in the air, ready to kill the girl who'd been a thorn in his side for far too long.

Looking her over as she stood facing him with a fire in her eyes, he added, "That's exactly how your story is going to end-"

The end of his sentence was cut short as the sound of gun shots echoed through the night and bullets ripped into his back where the armor wasn't nearly as strong.

Bird and Bruce looked past him to see Jim walking towards them up the drive, gun in hand, firing one shot after another into the back of the man who was set to kill them.

Turning to face him, Galavan looked at Jim and commented, "Unexpected…"

Without a word to him, Jim fired every last round until Galavan fell motionless to the ground.

Stepping over his body, Jim rushed to Bird, "Are you okay?" He questioned looking between where she still seemed unsteady on her feet and then to behind her where Bruce was coughing and rubbing his throat.

Bird's grip finally released on the handle of the sword she'd been clutching onto.  
It fell to the pavement with a clank and suddenly all the pain she was started to hit.

Alfred came limping down the driveway to them, "Looks like I missed all the fun." He tried to joke, relieved to see that while both Waynes were bloody and beaten, they were alive.

"Bird?" Jim asked, his hands gently landing on her upper arms, "Are you okay?" He repeated.

"My arm." She breathed.

Thinking she was hurt and his touch was making it worse, Jim let go of her until he saw the glass protruding from her left arm.

"Oh my god!" He exclaimed, quickly shrugging out of his coat and trying to situate it around the glass shard to apply pressure, "We need to keep your arm up, okay?"  
He spoke as he raised her arm up above her head.

"Bloody hell!" Alfred yelled as he took out his phone to call for help, "What happened?"

"The windows." Bruce's voice was dry and hoarse, "He threw her out of them."

"How are you still standing?" Jim questioned, helping to keep her badly injured arm above heart level.

"I don't know." She admitted with hiss of pain.

"Come on. You need to sit down and I'll call Bullock." Jim said, wrapping his other arm around her and starting to lead her over to the car Bruce had parked in the driveway.

"Behind-" Bruce tried to warn them but couldn't get more than a single word out before he broke into a cough.

But one word was all it took to understand what he was trying to tell him.

Alfred pushed Bruce to safety behind him, and Jim quickly spun around, taking a protective stance in front of Bird and drawing his gun as Galavan rose to his feet.

Aiming right between his eyes, Jim was ready to fire the kill shot into Galavan once again.  
Only when he pulled the trigger nothing happened.

"You should know by now that bullets don't kill this monster, Jim." Oswald said as he walked through the open gates up the driveway.

Coming to a stop, he swung the closed umbrella he'd been carrying as Galavan turned to face him, Oswald said, "My last one got stuck in your throat. So I'm thinking about shoving this one somewhere else."

Bird let out a weak chuckle in response to his words.  
Jim lowered his empty gun, putting his arm back around Bird and letting her lean against him for support.

Oswald smiled as Galavan pointed the tip of his sword at him.

A smile that tensed as he looked behind their nemesis to where Bird was standing in Jim's embrace.

"Jim." The detective's name tasted a little more bitter than usual as he looked at him, "A little tip for next time; always bring the right tools for the job."

Focusing back on the sole recipient of his hatred, Oswald parted, "See you in hell, Theo."

He stepped to the side and Butch walked into view, carrying a rocket launcher.

"Get down!" Alfred yelled, taking Bruce beside the car to shield him from the blast.

Butch watched to make sure Jim got Bird shielded by the car too before he took aim and fired the blast right to the center of Galavan's chest.

There was a blinding flash of light followed by an explosion that left their ears ringing.

Everyone seemed in shock, except for Oswald, Butch and Bird who'd known this was the plan all along.

To blast Galavan into so many pieces that no one could ever put him back together again.

Oswald and Butch walked closer to where Galavan's destroyed remains and tattered clothing were still on fire and Bird stumbled towards the same scene.

"Are you alright?" Oswald asked, watching his best friend's from across the flames.

"I will be." She managed an appreciative smile.

Looking behind her to where Alfred, Bruce and Jim were slowly coming back into view from behind the car, Oswald pulled in a deep breath and yelled, "You're welcome."

"Let's go, Butch." He instructed as he turned and walked away.

"Night fellas." Butch waved at them before pausing to look at Bird earning a smile from her as he repeated her earlier words, "Just like old times."

"See." Bird breathed as she watched them leave, "I told you we just had to hold him off until my friends arrived."

•••

"How's you arm?" Bruce questioned as the door to his bedroom opened and his older sister walked in, with her arm bandaged up and in a sling for the time being.

"I'll live." Bird offered a smile up and tried not to let the pain she was in show on her face as she gingerly sat down on the edge of his bed.

This was probably going on the fifth time that Azrael had managed to throw her across a room as if she weighed little more than a paper weight.  
Though this time was by far the worst seeing as how she was thrown though glass.

Bruce watched her as she used the hand on her good arm to rub the opposite shoulder.

Here they were, thrust into a life or death situation yet again, and he still wasn't able to react the way he'd hoped.  
He hadn't been frozen in fear the entire time, which was a small step up from the last few years, but nowhere near where he'd hoped his training would have gotten him.

What good is having the physical strength and battle know-how if he wasn't able to deploy it in the times that really mattered.

"I don't understand." Bruce finally said out loud, "I wanted to fight back tonight. I thought that if Galavan really was coming here that I'd be ready and then…"

His voice trailed off.

"You did fight back, little brother." Bird reminded him, "You hit him with a car."

"Not the way that you and Alfred fought." He argued with her.

"We've both had more experience." Bird assured him.  
There was a serious look in her eyes as she stared at her younger brother, "It's normal to be afraid when some guy with the strength of three men comes after you wielding an ancient sword said to hold supernatural powers."

"You weren't afraid."

"Well…" Bird sighed, "Like you said the disregard I show for my own life is alarming." She tried to joke, but could see he wasn't in the mood for it.

"Of course I was scared." She admitted, "How could I not have been? And Alfred might not show it either, but there were times tonight when he was scared too."

"Maybe so." He conceded, "But it didn't hold either of you back from standing up to him."

This wasn't the first dangerous spot they'd been in where he'd been told by one or both of them to run while they fought back.  
He didn't want to be the boy who ran from danger anymore.  
He'd been training to be the man who'd stand tall in the face of it.

"I was just trying to buy time." Bird shrugged.  
Immediately regretting it when her shoulders and back ached even worse with the movement.

That was another thing he hadn't understood, was how his sister who didn't seem to trust much of anyone had been so sure her friends would show up and come to her aid.

Not to mention the fact that the two people who showed up were both known criminals. The ones the papers warn you to watch out for, yet they'd saved the day.

"You knew they'd show up. So much so that you bet your life on it." He commented, giving her a questioning look as he spoke.

"With Butch it's complicated." Bird couldn't help but chuckle, "We're old friends, but this was more of an enemy of my enemy situation."

"And with Oswald Cobblepot?" He questioned.

"That's not complicated at all." Bird shook her head, "He's my best friend. You know that."

"Yes, but how did you know you could trust him to that extent?" Bruce asked.

It didn't feel like so long ago that he'd fully put his trust into Galavan, only to be betrayed.

"With some people it's like…" Her voice trailed off as she tried to think of what to compare it too, "Something just clicks into place. I can't really explain it."

"What?" Bird pushed when he looked down to the blanket on his bed and seemed to almost shrink down.

"I'm just thinking about how much I still have to learn." He admitted.

It wasn't just a matter of continuing his training and getting stronger.

Bird had told him more than once that surviving in a place like Gotham was just as much mental as it was physical and now he understood what she meant perfectly.

He had to start learning how to read people better.

What seemed like natural instinct to Bird, was something he was going to have to work on for himself.

She'd said from the very beginning that she didn't trust Galavan and while Alfred was more silent in his disapproval of the man, they'd both known something was off when Bruce wasn't able to see it for himself.

"It's been long day." Bird rose to her feet, "You should try and sleep."

When Bruce looked up at her she half-smiled, "Get some rest. The crisis has been averted."

With a slow nod, he didn't say it out loud, but all he could think was how long until the next crisis.  
There seemed to be no shortage of those as of late.

"Goodnight, Bruce." Bird quietly said as she leaned down and pressed a kiss to the top of his head.

"Goodnight." He replied as he watched her leave his room and pull the door shut behind her.

Crossing through the upstairs of the house, Bird slowed to a stop as she saw Jim putting the last bit of tape on that was holding the cardboard over the broken window.

A temporary fix until Alfred could get someone there to repair the damage.

His suit jacket was off, as well as his white button up shirt that was draped over the edge of the stair banister.

Leaning up against the wall, Bird stayed silent while she watched as he finished pressing the last bit of duct tape to the cardboard and wall.

Feeling a set of eyes on him, he glanced over his shoulder and caught Bird watching him.

"Hey." He greeted looking her over and internally breathing another sigh of relief that she was okay, knowing that one variation in how the events of the night could have let to entirely different outcome.

Turning around the rest of the way to face her direction, he asked, "What are you doing?"

"Just taking in the view." Bird answered with a small smile.

"That so?" Jim asked, unable to hold back a laugh as he gathered up the tape and scraps from the floor to move them over to nearby decorative table.

"I'm, uh…" Bird breathed, her face twisting up some as she continued, ""I'm glad you showed up when you did."

"Yeah." Jim nodded, "Me too."

They both stared at each other in silence.

Both knowing they'd been in the wrong at different points over the last few days.

Now that it was over.  
Now that Galavan was dead and never coming back, Bird wasn't entire sure where they stood.

"What now?" She questioned.

"How's Bruce?" Jim asked her.

"Coping." She answered with a small shrug, "He's in bed -exhausted, just like the rest of us are."

"Well, the windows are fixed up for now until Alfred gets someone here for repairs. Bullock's holding a press interview in the morning over what happened-"

"An interview with no mention of Oswald or Butch?" Bird clarified.

"Yes." Jim breathed with a sigh.

"And us?" She asked.  
Throwing a shrug in at the end of her question for good measure. An attempt to pretend his answer didn't matter so much.

But he knew her better than that.  
Jim could see through the empty gesture.

The truth was that their feelings for each other had bubbled to surface and started to grow long before they were officially in a relationship.

Meaning that the way felt about her was with the full knowledge of her past crimes and the lengths she'd go to -to see the means to an end.

There was no other way this could have ended than with Theo Galavan's death -again.  
It was something he'd known all along but had tried to hold out hope that it could be different this time around.

A conversation he'd had with Bird months ago sprang to the front of his memory.  
It happened on the same night Bird had gunned down Matches Malone in his own home; one in which he'd finally started to admit that he regretted shooting Galavan in cold blood.

He was finding it difficult to live with the blood he'd accumulated on his hands, while Bird seemed entirely unphased with her own crimson stains.

When questioned about how she lived with so many deaths on her conscious; so much blood staining her hands, she'd simply answered that it washes off.

And maybe for her it did.  
But not for him.

For Jim, the blood he'd spilled left a stain he couldn't wash off.

He knew there were conversations that they'd need to have eventually.  
That the lengths Bird was willing to go to would surely continue to be the center of many disagreements.

But not tonight.  
No, tonight the battle had been won and Gotham City was a little safer than it had been with Azrael running around.

"Us?" Jim questioned, eyeing her as he picked up his button up shirt from the banister and turned back to face her.

"Yeah." Bird nodded, letting him she really expected an answer, "Us."

"We go home." He breathed.  
Drawing on the relief he felt that she was safe, for the moment at least, Jim managed to offer another smile.

"And sleep for a month." He joked, as he wrapped an arm around her and nodded over towards the stairs, "Maybe two."

With a new found smile of her own, Bird chuckled, "We can't. I've got that silent auction at the end of the week. The charity fundraiser, remember?"

•••

"Hello?" Bird groggily spoke into the receiver of the portable phone she'd managed to pull from it's charging base on her bedside table after she'd knocked nearly every thing else off onto the floor.

"Why is your cellphone off?" Were the first words from Barbara's mouth, "It's going to straight to voice mail."

With a loud ground, Bird looked over beside her in the bed to see Jim wasn't there. Raising up further to see if the light in the bathroom was on, Bird answered, "It's broken."

Waking up a bit more when she realized he wasn't in the bathroom either, Bird asked, "Barbara, what do you want?"

"Just wanted to say hi." Barbara answered back, feigning an apologetic tone as she added, "Sorry if I woke you up."

"Uh-huh." Bird rubbed her hand over her face again as she sat all the way up and leaned back against the padded headboard, "Have you ever been sorry for anything you've done, B?"

"You know what they say…" Barbara smiled against the phone she was pressing tightly against her face, "Die with memories -not regrets."

"You're lucky." The blonde continued, "You've got Jim all to yourself, don't you? I always had to share him with the GCPD. All the nights we'd go to bed together and I'd end up waking up by myself hours later. But he's right there beside you, isn't he?"

Looking up towards the shadowed ceiling, Bird loudly blew out a sigh of annoyance into the phone at her words.  
It had been a long day and the last thing she wanted to do was spend the night on the phone with Barbara Kean. Especially when all the blonde wanted to talk about was how she was never going to get over Jim.

"Oh?" Barbara realized after cringing from the pain Bird's breath had caused in her ear, "You're alone…"

"I'm hanging up and going to sleep." Bird started to say, but Barbara interrupted her, "You're not worried about where he is?"

"No." Bird answered, if only for the sake of arguing with her.

"I know where he is." Barbara practically purred into the phone, waiting with baited breath in hopes that Bird would snap at her. Show some kind of reaction that she was worried he might have been with her.

But the brunette stayed silent, her steady breathing even more even than it had been when she'd answered the phone.

Pulling in a deep breath, Barbara's jaw tensed, "Don't worry, B. He's not with me."

"Thanks, but I don't need you to tell me that-"

"He's probably in your dining room. Probably going over case files or something." Barbara spoke over her, "Technically he's not a cop anymore, but it's still in his DNA. Needing to find that next case to solve, the next obsession to keep him up at night. You see, Jim always needs to be chasing the next bad guy so he can keep reminding himself he's the hero."

"Oh, wait." She continued, "He's not searching for the next case yet because he's still neck deep in trying to solve the only case that matters to him right now. Finding out who killed your mommy and daddy. Hey, did you know I helped him with that recently-"

"The Artemis Club?" Bird guessed.  
A small smirk taking shape on her lips when the other end of the line went silent, "Yeah, he told me."

Bird stopped herself just shy of saying that they didn't have secrets between them.  
She was still holding in the secret of her involvement in her birth mother's death.

Barbara's grip tightened on her phone receiver.

One of the things that bothered her the most about Jim's relationship with Lee, was how he didn't keep near as many secrets from her as he'd hidden when he was with Barbara.

Now it was growing increasingly clear to her that Jim would be keeping even less from Bird.  
After all, they had started to share secrets together long before they'd even have considered themselves friends.

Bird was one of the first people who'd known he hadn't really killed Oswald Cobblepot when the orders had been given.

She'd worked from within Falcone's inner circle to save Jim's life and even Barbara's on countless occasions.

Even after Jim had moved on to his relationship with Lee, Barbara had never lost hope in getting him back.  
After all, she'd known Jim had a dark side. Not too different from the darkness she carried inside of herself -a darkness that Lee lacked.

But it was different now that he was with Bird.  
Someone who didn't only possess a darkness, but often wore it on display.

"I should have seen this coming." Barbara finally said into the phone after what had felt like months of silence.

Not giving Bird a chance to question what she was talking about, Barbara elaborated, "You and Jim."

He'd started talking about Bird not long after her parents had been killed.  
It had started with mentions her name coming up in casual conversation -nearly always spoke in an annoyed tone.

She got under his skin in the way few people could manage.

Barbara couldn't exactly pinpoint when that had changed, when the irritation faded from his voice when he spoke of her.

"He'll break you." Barbara warned in response to the extended silence on the line.

"I don't think so." Bird spoke up.  
She hadn't fallen asleep like her former friend was beginning to wonder.

"He broke me." Barbara argued with her, "Broke Lee bad enough she fled town."  
Clearing her throat and taking a drink from the glass in her other hand, the blonde questioned, "What makes you think you'll be any different?"

"What I think -is that you're trying to get in my head and it's not gonna work, B." Bird shrugged.  
She'd spent far too long second guessing everything in her head earlier that year and she wasn't about to let someone work their way into her mind now.

Pushing the blanket off of her bare legs, Bird swung her legs off the bed and slowly stood up, stretching her back and looking down to her bandaged up arm.  
It had been a struggle just to get her nightie on for bed that night.

"You know I'm right, B." Barbara was quick to argue, but the snappiness in her tone was gone and her voice was softer.  
She sounded more like the person Bird first met a few years ago versus the one she'd turned into.

"You need to move on." Bird's voice quieted as she pushed the doors of the master bedroom open and stepped out into the dimly lit hallway, "I can't imagine what a burden all that bitterness and jealously must be to live with every single day. We barely speak now and it's exhausting me."

Leaning her head back, the blonde let out a small laugh and nodded, "I can see why you think I'm jealous. I mean you are living the life that should be mine with him. But no, B. I don't envy you."

"Oh, yeah?" She nearly whispered, her bare feet lightly padding against the steps as she made her way down stairs in search of Jim, "Why's that?"

"You might not consider us friends anymore, but I do. And I know you. I watched you do everything in your power to try and change for Harvey, remember?" She reminded her, "And we all saw how that ended up..."

"That's the thing though." Bird argued, "Jim already knows who I am-"

"Exactly." Barbara agreed, "That's how I know that you'll spend every day worried about losing him. Wondering just how much bad you can do until he stops looking at you the same way. Which skeleton in your closet will be the one he can't handle."

Bird didn't answer as she stepped into the door way of the dining room and saw Jim sitting at the table.  
Papers and folders scattered across the large table.

She didn't have to go further into the room to know he was going over the case file of her parents' murderers for probably the thousandth time.  
As if something new would suddenly jump off the pages.

Galavan's return had put their investigation on hold.  
But that problem was over now -and they were back to figuring out a way to best tie Hugo Strange to the murders.

"It will happen, Bird." Barbara cautioned, "Don't say I didn't warn you."

Taking the phone away from her ear, Bird ended the call without so much as a goodbye to her old on and off again friend.

The beginning of their conversation had been little more than an annoyance. A desperate attempt by Barbara to get under her skin and inside of her head to split them apart.

For reasons that defied all logic, Barbara was still convinced that she and Jim were meant to be. That no matter what happened between now and then -that they'd be together in the end.

But by the end of the conversation, Bird was wishing she'd never answered the phone. That she'd hung up the very second she heard the blonde's voice on the other end of the line.

Her words had finally struck a nerve; more so than Bird would care to admit.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jim thought he'd caught sight of a shadow, he turned around expecting to see Bird -but he didn't see anyone.

Rubbing his eyes, he knew he should go back to bed and try and get some sleep.  
He'd been so tired that night when they got home that all he'd managed to do was strip down to his boxers and undershirt before crawling into bed.

But after an hour of tossing and turning, he knew laying there for a minute longer was pointless.  
His mind wasn't going to let him sleep.

Not when they still needed to find a way to bring Hugo Strange to justice for his involvement in the Wayne murders.  
So rather than risk waking Bird up from his inability to sleep, he figured he'd get up and give all the files they'd collected another look.

His legs felt like they had weights chained to them as he made his way up the stairs and to the master bedroom.

He paused for a minute outside of the double doors, before opening them as quietly as possible and walking into he dark room.

Even though he knew he was probably so worn out that he'd been seeing things downstairs, he really thought someone had been in the room with him.  
So much so that he was nearly surprised to find Bird sleeping soundly in bed.

He crossed the large room and sat down on the side of the mattress, but when he started to move the blanket his hand brushed against something hard and as he picked it up he saw it was the portable phone.

"Bird?" He whispered.  
Leaning over towards her to see if she was really asleep or not, but if she was awake she didn't answer him.

He'd heard the phone earlier, but by the time he'd stood up, it had stopped -so he thought it was probably someone realizing they'd dialed wrong and hung up after only a few line trills.

His gaze fell back to the phone until he finally just laid it over on the nightstand next to where his cellphone was plugged in to charge.

•••

* * *

 **A/N - I hope you all liked the chapter and that my Bim shippers (Bird x Jim) are still here. Haha**

 **I really want to thank: Munyue, Shadow knight1121, Love. Fiction. 2018, xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, SmellYourScentForMiles, DancingDorisDay and the Guests who were all kind enough to review since I last updated.**

 **Just a reminder that I am on Tumblr (twofacedharveydent).**

 ** **Thank you all for reading.****


	33. Cataclysmic

**XXXIII**

" _Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." - Voltaire_

* * *

•••

"There were no fatalities after a shocking and violent attack on a Wayne Enterprises charity event last evening. Several people were taken to Gotham General with minor injuries. Four of the gunman were stopped by Starling Wayne and former detective, James Gordon. All four were later apprehended by the GCPD. If you have any information that could be helpful in locating the rest of the suspects, please contact the police."

Bird let out a heavy sigh as she watched the news coverage of the silent action turned disaster she'd hosted the night before.

The news today was supposed to have led in with what a success the auction was; how much money was raised and would be used to improve the community and Gotham's least fortunate citizens.

There should have been talk of the incredible speech she'd given without getting tongue tied a single time.

This was the first big event she'd been in charge of since accepting the position within her family's company.

Hopefully the first of many highly successful functions that had her name on them.

Instead, the evening had been hijacked by a local gang and now the morning news reports were full of how the room had been taken over at gunpoint.

The Gotham Gazette was raising questions on if she was even qualified for the job to begin with and even going so far as trying to find a connection between the attack and her time spent working under Fish Mooney.

Local, less reputable gossip columns were far more concerned with which designers dress she'd worn and how she'd showed up to the event with Jim Gordon on her arm.

The local station she'd been watching on the new T.V. in her office had been the first mention of her help in stopping the attack before anyone had been killed.

"It's not fair." Charmaine softly said as she stood in the doorway of her boss's office with her arms crossed over her chest, head shaking from side to side, "This is far from the first Wayne Enterprises event that ended up going this route.

Picking the remote up from her desk, Bird muted the television set and looked over at her secretary.

"A few years ago, there was a charity luncheon that ended in nothing short of disaster. A disgruntled employee from WellZyn-"

"Released Viper through the air ducts." Bird nodded, "Yeah, I was there."

That had been the first Wayne Enterprises event she'd attended since moving out on her own years before. I  
t was also the day she'd introduced her brother and Alfred to her then boyfriend, Harvey Dent.

"The point I'm trying to make is that you shouldn't be beating yourself up over this. These events are always a beacon for someone thinking they can pull off an easy crime and come away with tons of money." Charmaine continued.

Any event where Gotham's elite were gathered to rub elbows and open their checkbooks was at risk of being a target.

"You saved the night." She added, "I was terrified. Honestly, I was hiding under a catering table in the back of the room when the guns came out. But not you. You stopped the criminals before anyone got seriously hurt."

"Well, you wouldn't know it from the news." Bird rubbed her forehead, "That's the part that everyone conveniently wants to leave out."

"But hey, good news…" Her voice trailed off as she fished through the scattered piles and papers and pulled out one of the gossip columns with a picture of her from the night before and pointed to the small print under the picture, "The dress I wore is totally in season."

"Whatever." Bird tried to push it out of her head as she gathered up all of the pages and dropped them into her trashcan.

"Um." Charmaine cleared her throat, "Would it be okay if I left a little early this afternoon?"

"Why?" Bird asked.

Her secretary stared back at her for a second, trying to determine how the question was supposed to have sounded.

During her time working with Bird, she'd learned that often times what Bird said wasn't meant nearly as rude or harsh as it came out.  
For someone born and bred for this life; coming from one of Gotham's wealthiest families, she lacked a bit of the social grace one would expect her to have.

Her words were often sharp, tone short and usually one out of every ten statements could be interpreted as a threat.

Equally, just as alarming were the times Bird was the most charming person in the room.

Sometimes she felt like she was working for two separate people, depending on the day.

"My car is in the repair shop, so my husband will be picking me up when he gets off work." Charmaine explained.

"We have company cars." Bird reminded her, reaching for the phone as she said, "I can just have one brought over for you."

A smile spread over Charmaine's painted red lips.

For all Bird's abruptness and occasional lack of charm with raw honesty, she'd treated her secretary with nothing but respect.  
Treated her as if they were on the same level within the company despite her holding a board chair and being her superior.

One of the first things Bird had done when she'd taken over the position was push for her secretary to get a rather large raise and now her she was offering up executive perks, such as company loaner cars to a secretary.  
A position that was viewed as entirely replaceable by the company at large.

How silly she felt now for being so concerned about keeping her job when Garret Bryne had passed away and Bird took the office.  
She was now making nearly twice what she did before and felt far more appreciated than all of her years working under Bryne.

"That's very kind, but-" Charmaine held her hand up to stop her boss, "I'd just feel a lot better with my husband picking me up. Truth be told, I've been a little rattled since this morning."

Noticing that she's cited that morning for cause of concern and not the events from the night before, Bird asked, "What happened this morning?"

"My husband went out to start my car and let it warm up before I left for work and he caught a glimpse of someone running from our driveway." She didn't want to worry her, but she also knew how important Bird considered honesty to be, "Luckily, I married a man with both good instincts and knowledge of cars… um, someone had tampered with my brakes."

"It's not the greatest neighborhood." Charmaine quickly added when she saw the color drain from Bird's face, "We're planning on moving in the next couple months. Thanks to you, with my raise, we'll be able to afford a better place."

"You can leave early, but I don't want you to go home." Bird said.

Opening the bottom drawer of her desk, Bird took her handbag out as she spoke, "Someone tried to break into my house early this morning."

Taking out a black credit card with gold embellished letters and numbering, Bird handed the company card to Charmaine and said, "I want you and your husband to get a hotel room until further notice. And not at some little roadside place either. Think five star. All the amenities."

"You think it's Fat Lenny's crew?" Charmaine realized, as she took the credit card and couldn't even begin to find the right words to thank her.

"I think I might have underestimated his reach." Bird sighed, "Yes."

•••

Much later in the day Bird was still in her office, leaned back in her desk chair while she stared up at the ceiling.

It had been an exceptionally long day and even though her every other thought had been about how much she wanted to go home, she was still sitting alone in her office hours after Charmaine had left.

After her talk with her secretary earlier that morning, she'd called Jim and asked him to go over to Wayne Manor.

If Lenny's crew was going to start individually targeting the people in her life, then she imaged it would only be a matter of time before her brother's life would be in danger.

That was the irony of it all.

Here she was; working a respectable job that had nothing to do with the city's criminal underworld and yet she was being dragged back into the shadows yet again.

Closing the folder in front of her, she reached out to the phone on the desk and started to dial the number for Wayne Manor, intending to tell whoever answered that she'd be leaving work and heading there within the next several minutes.

When her cellphone chimed with a message, she couldn't help but let out a small chuckle, assuming it was a message from Jim, checking on her and seeing when she was leaving work.  
This wouldn't the first time they'd either messaged one another at the same time, or both tried to call at the exact same time.

Setting the receiver of the phone back down, she picked up her cellphone and flipped it open.

Only the text message wasn't from Jim -or from any number she recognized for that matter.

All that was sent to her was an address.

That was until the phone buzzed with a second text; a picture message this time.

Her eyes widened at the picture, heart started to race inside of her chest and she scrambled to stand up from the office chair.

"Okay…"  
She breathed out loud to the otherwise empty room in an attempt to settle her now frazzled nerves.

Her eyes were glued to the phone screen as she waited for another message, but one never came through.

•••

"Bird!" Oswald greeted with a smile as he saw his oldest and truest friend rushing through the door of the mansion he'd inherited from his father, "I wasn't expecting you to drop by-"

The smile fell from his lips.  
All it took was one glance at the expression on her face and he knew something was wrong; very wrong.

"What happened?" He questioned, moving closer to where she was standing.

"I need to talk to Butch. He's still here, right?" She questioned, a little airily from the mad dash she'd made from her car to the house.

Wordlessly, he turned and led her into one of the sitting rooms where Butch was sitting on a couch watching T.V.

At first he'd told himself that he'd help Oswald and Bird take down Galavan and then he was done. He didn't want to get wrapped back up in their harebrained schemes.

He'd already lost a hand and nearly his life.

But Tabitha's condition had yet to improve and truthfully he didn't have anywhere else to go.

He was lost.

He'd never done very well left on his own.

So he'd realigned himself with Penguin, agreeing to help him take back control of the crime game.

Then a few days ago Barbara had showed up too.  
Apparently he wasn't the only one feeling left out in the rain with nowhere else to go while Tabitha was still hospitalized.

"Bird." Butch greeted, seeming just as surprised to see her as Oswald had been.

"Butch." She paused to return the greeting, before walking over to the set and switching the power off.

"Hey!" He complained, "I was watching that."

"I need to know everything you know about Fat Lenny." Bird ignored his protest.

"Why?" Oswald questioned.  
Wondering why Bird would be concerning herself with such low level street gangs.

"Because apparently my intel is a little dated. Seeing as how I thought this was a crew with barely a handful of guys, but somehow now they have the power to hold a charity action at gun point and now have abducted someone." She continued.

Oswald's nose wrinkled, "That's who held up the Wayne Enterprises event?"

Butch looked between the friends, both of whom looked entirely confused.

"Lenny joined up with a few other street gangs a while back-" Butch started to explain, but didn't get very far when Oswald angrily stomped his foot down like a child and yelled, "Butch!"

"What?" He got to his feet and looked between them again.

"Keeping street crews with only a few members is how we prevent an uprising!" Oswald scolded him.

Rubbing a hand over his forehead at the realization that taking back his throne would be harder than he'd initially expected after the way Butch had run things.

"I didn't know what was I doing in the beginning." He tried to defend, but his forehead wrinkled and with a nod at Bird he asked, "Why are you asking about 'em anyways?"

Pulling her phone out of her pocket she opened up the text messages and handed her phone over.

Butch looked down at the screen, at first he only saw several texts from her number, all of which had gone unanswered.

But upon scrolling up further, he saw the only set of incoming texts.

With a cringe he commented, "Yikes."  
As Oswald pulled the phone from his hands, Butch asked, "Who is that?"

"Harvey Dent." Oswald answered.  
Even with a bloodied face, Oswald could easily recognize the face of the man he'd spent over a year enraged at for his taking Bird away from him.

The picture was of the district attorney with his arms and legs bound in the corner of a dirty looking room.  
His face showed clear signs of a beating -including a very nasty looking black eye.

"Damn." Butch shook his head, "You think they'd have gone after Gordon."

"Yeah, me too." Bird agreed, "I knew it was a possibility and I was depending on Jim's abilities to defend himself. I didn't expect them to blitz attack my ex."

Turning her attention back to Butch she said, "So I need to know everything you know about them. I have to know what I'm walking into here."

Oswald read through the other other text messages that Bird had sent back to the number, but never got a response.

There was only the first message with the address and time to be there and the second, the picture of an injured Harvey to lure her there.

"You'd be walking into a trap." Oswald commented, laying her phone down on table nearby.

"I know." Bird agreed.

There wasn't any instructions included with the messages.

No amount of money they wanted.  
No warning to come alone or against involving the police.  
None of the normal demands that go along with a hostage situation.

"They'll kill you!" Oswald's voice raised, "Clearly, they are trying to get you there so they can finish you off."

"I know." Bird repeated, and when she saw him open his mouth again, she already knew what he'd say.

"And there is a chance that Harvey is already dead. I know." Bird nodded, "But on the chance that he's still alive, I can't just leave him there."

"I'm just…" Oswald let out an unhinged laugh, lips drawn tightly against his unbrushed teeth, "I'm just having a little trouble understanding this. You told me you're with Jim Gordon now. So, who cares if they've killed Harvey Dent?"

Bird slowly turned her head, giving him a blank expression with her admission, "I do, Oswald."

"Look…" She breathed walking over to him, "Just because we aren't together anymore doesn't mean I want him to die. His life still matters and the only reason he's in danger right now is because of me."

Turning back to where Butch was she repeated, "I need to know everything."

Butch didn't know too much about it himself.

Before joining forces with Tabitha, he'd hadn't paid much attention to the small gangs.  
Logic said they'd be the last ones to pose a problem to his newly gained power.

Of course, after hearing the reasons why Oswald had made sure small crews stayed just that, he could now see the flaws in his reasoning.

But he told her everything he knew about Lenny's crew and which other gangs they'd joined up with.

Fat Lenny had grew more brutal with his growing power.  
Often times making deals with other gangs, to go back on his word, kill their leader and then offer the lower members a spot on his side or face an ugly death.

Bird's phone started to ring, but she was too invested in the information Butch had to offer up, that was until she heard Barbara's voice, "Jim! Hi, how have you been? Miss me?"

Turning around the saw the blonde with a drink in one hand and Bird's cellphone in the other.

Giving a wink to Bird, she said into the phone, "Oh, calm down would you. Bird is fine. She's visiting with Ozzy and Butch."

"Barbara." Bird sighed, holding her hand out for her phone.

"Give her the phone?" Barbara repeated Jim's words back him, "Oh, I don't know… today seems to be more about exes. You know, Bird and Harvey… me and you…"

"Give me my phone or I will break every finger on your hand." Bird spoke calmly, but it was within that calmness that made her words even more chilling. Knowing that she'd do it without a second thought.  
Without hesitation.

"Fine…" The blonde sighed, rolling her eyes as she spoke, "Nice chat, Jim. We should catch up soon, yeah? Maybe over dinner?"

Her eyes locked with Bird's as she slowly pulled the phone away from her ear and handed it over.

"Hey." Bird answered as she put the phone to her ear, "Listen, I can't talk right now, but I'll explain everything. I'll meet you at home soon."

Ending the call, she put her phone back into her pocket and glanced up at Oswald when he repeated back, "Home?"

"Yes." Barbara nodded, pausing to take a drink from her glass.

"He is unemployed after all. Where else is he going to go?" Looking at Bird she questioned, "Does he even still have his apartment or is he strictly living with you now?"

"Our living arrangements don't concern you." Bird made it clear that she wasn't going to pulled into Barbara's game of jealousy.

More than anything she knew the blonde wanted to get under her skin.  
Get a rise out of her and she wasn't going to let that happen.

"Hmm." Barbara continued, "On the surface we might not all be same, but maybe Jim really does have a type…"  
Smiling she said, "I had more money than him, Lee was a doctor so she made more and now he's moved onto you -the richest of them all."

"It's not gonna work, B." Bird simply answered, "You're not going to get in my head about this."

"I'm just stating the obvious." She innocently answered, laying a hand over her heart and feigning shock at the insinuation.

"Bird." Oswald drew her attention, "Are you sure Harvey Dent is worth risking your life over? Maybe this is a situation where you should just let fate take it's course. Let the pieces fall where they may."

"No." Barbara was quick to argue, "Let her play hero for that day. Maybe then she'll realize she's meant to be with Harvey and Jim is supposed to be with me."

"At the price of her own life?" Oswald's body shook from the volume his voice had reached, a near snarl on his lips.

"Shut up!" Bird yelled, "Both of you."  
Her voice lowered and she shook her head, "I don't have time for this."

••• **that night •••**

"I don't like this, partner." Bullock spoke in a quite tone as he looked over to where Jim was sitting in the passenger seat of the car, "We should call for back up."

"No." Jim shook his head, "I promised Bird the only one I'd call in would be you."

"Yeah, well I didn't promise her a thing." Bullock said as he started to reach for the radio in the car to call for some back up.

Since Barnes' had been severely injured and remained hospitalized, Bullock had taken over duties as acting captain.

Which meant he had to be far more cognizant of his actions and this had disaster written all over it.

"Wait." Jim pulled the microphone from his hand, "My initial thought was the same thing. We needed GCPD, probably even the strike-force-"

"Good. Trust your gut." Bullock nodded, "First instinct all the way."

"But!" Jim loudly interrupted, "Bird's right about this. The more people we have on scene the more chaos it's going to cause."

He explained to his former partner how the texts Bird had gotten only gave a location, time and then a picture of Dent.

It hadn't occurred to him at first either, not until Bird pointed it out, but this wasn't your usual abductors making demands.  
There wasn't even a mention of not calling the police.

Meaning this was without a doubt some kind of trap they were all about to walk into.

"Bringing in anyone else might just equal more bodies in the end." Jim reattached the microphone to the radio and nodded across the street to the building and said, "She's checking the perimeter. If we're severely out numbered then we'll radio for back up, okay?"

"I don't like this." Bullock repeated for about the fifth time since they'd parked there.

Both detectives were startled when one of the back doors of the car was opened and Bird got in; neither of them had seen her cross the street to get to the car.

"How many?" Jim turned in his seat to face her.

"None." Bird answered.

"Wait just a minute-" Bullock sucked in a sharp breath, "You're telling me these people sent you to an abandoned warehouse with no armed men guarding it."

"I didn't say it made sense." Bird sharply answered, "There's no one outside and from what I could see through the windows, I didn't see anyone inside either."

"This is great." Bullock exclaimed, "The place is probably booby trapped. One step inside and the entire place is going to blow."

"Yeah. Maybe." Bird said, as she reached over and opened the car door.

"Good idea." Bullock called after her, "You go and we'll stay here. Right, Jim?"

"Jim!" He yelled as he watched him get out of the car after her, "Come on." He muttered, as he followed suit.

"If we're all following each other into a burning building, who's going to call for help, huh?" He whisper-yelled at the back of their heads as they crowded around a side entrance and Jim used a crow bar to break into the building.

Bird and Jim were the first ones through the door, both with flashlights at the ready to survey the main room -which was entirely empty.

"We can cover more ground if we split up." Bird suggested.

Jim looked at her, his first impulse was to say no, that they needed to stick together.  
But he knew Bird was more than capable of taking care of herself; even with limited use of one arm.

It wasn't an easy pill to swallow.  
His instinct was to protect the things important to him, but Bird didn't need his protection.

"Okay." He agreed with a nod.  
Looking between Bullock and Bird, Jim said, "We do a quick sweep and see if Dent is here. If we don't find anything we get out."

Bullock watched as they both walked off in separate directions.  
This was precisely the point in horror movies where everyone's fate had been sealed; the very second they agreed to split up.

For well over a year he'd been sure Jim would be the death of him one day, now that he was with Bird and neither one of them seemed to have the correct response to danger, he figured that day was going to come even faster.

Maybe even tonight, he thought as he headed towards the opposite end of the first floor that Bird had gone, while Jim was already up on the second floor.

Bird kept the flashlight steady in one hand and a gun in the other.

She'd already cleared a few rooms and hadn't found anything or anyone.

After checking another room, she stepped out into a hallway and looked down when she both heard and felt something crunch under her feet.

She saw some broken pieces of glass in the beam of her flashlight, but what caught her attention was a little further over on the floor.

The dust and random debris was cleared from a section on the floor.  
Shining her light down the hall, she noticed the clear spot went all the way to a door towards the end.

As if something had been dragged across the floor.

Carefully she followed the path, making sure to be extra aware of her surroundings so no one would get the chance to jump out at her.

She wasn't sure if this was a ploy to get her into the building and kill or, or sneak up and abduct her.

She had no idea what their plan was.

Once she was sure she was alone in the hallway, Bird stood a little ways back from the sliding metal door and shined her flashlight beam over the surface looking for an obvious signs of a trap, but aside from hand prints and smears breaking up the thick coating of dust and grime she didn't see anything else.

"Harvey?" She called out, moving in closer and trying to peek around the edge, but was unable to make anything out through the little opening around the door.

She could hear a muffled voice trying to yell something back to her, but couldn't make out any discernible words.  
It was hard to even be entirely sure that it was even his voice.

"Jim!" She yelled over her shoulder, hoping he'd hear her from wherever it was he was currently looking.

Having no choice but to lay both her flashlight and gun down to begin prying the door open, she yelled out for both Jim and Bullock again.

Getting a heavy metal door that was older than her to move would be a tough enough task in general, but when she was still nursing a badly injured arm from the night she'd went up again Galavan -it was proving nearly impossible.

Finally, the door started to slide along it's track and she opened it enough to be able slip through.

With her flashlight now in hand, she squeeze through the opening and looked around with the help of the moonlight coming in through an old cracked window.

"Harvey!" She gasped when she finally spotted him in the corner, struggling to break free -arms and legs bound with thick rope.

"I've got him!" She screamed as loud as she could manage towards the door as she rushed to his side and dropped down.

Despite the fact that help had clearly arrived, he seemed utterly frantic.  
Trying desperately to talk through the thick cloth he'd been gagged with.

"Hey, it's okay." Bird promised, laying her light down and pulling the switchblade from her pocket to cut him free, "I've got you."

Bird reached up and pulled the gag from his mouth, letting it fall to his neck.

"You shouldn't have."  
He hoarsely choked out with his dryer than cotton mouth as he turned his head to try and get a better look at her through his eye that wasn't swollen shut.

Bird's eyebrows lowered, but before she could open her mouth to ask him what he was talking about, she heard beeping.

Picking her flashlight back up, Bird shined it in the direction of the sound.

Though she didn't really even need to see the rigged explosive to know the beeping timer counting down on a bomb.

It was all one big trap.

Just like she'd expected and just like Oswald had warned her.

Nothing about the way Lenny's crew was handling their hostage situation at all made any sense.

Which now made all the sense in the world, they were planning on blowing the building up with her and whoever she'd brought with her in it.

"Go." Harvey tried to choke out, but barely got a breath in before he broke out in a cough.

"No." Bird's vision squared up with his before she fiercely got to work on trying to cut through some of the thickest ropes she'd ever seen.

"That-" He ran his tongue over his lips, but it felt more sandpaper and did little to make the speaking easier, "It could go off. At any moment."

"Then I guess we'll literally go down in flames, huh?" Bird lamely tried to joke, despite the fact that her forehead was already beaded with sweat.

Letting out a breath, he leaned his head back up against the wall.

Even if she did manage to cut the ropes on his legs, it would be a miracle if he'd even be able to get up and run for safety.

The only other time he'd been in pain like this was the day Falcone's men had jumped him the year before.

It hadn't been about him, it was a warning to Bird.

Raising his head, he looked at her again through his good eye as he realized something similar had to be happening all over again.

None of the men who'd taken him had said a single word to him the entire time.

He'd been hit in the head hard enough that he'd been in and out of consciousness, so he'd only been able to grasp pieces of what they were saying to one another, but it wasn't until just now that he understood why he'd been taken in the first place.

"In there!" Jim yelled over his shoulder to Bullock as he rushed down the hallway where he could see light coming through between the door and wall.

"Bird?" Bullock called out, wanting to make sure the literal light at the end of a tunnel they were rushing to was really her and not some enemy waiting on them.

"Go!" She screamed, not looking up from where she was still sawing away at the ropes binding Harvey's legs, "There's a bomb!"

"Bomb?" Bullock huffed, slowing to a stop, he fought for a breath and asked, "Did she say bomb?"

But Jim didn't answer him, instead he pushed the door to the room open wider and ran in.

"I can't-" Bird's voice was muffled behind her clenched teeth, "It's like I'm trying to cut through steel."

"Move. Move." Jim was already pulling the knife from her hands before she realized how close he was, "I'll get him. Go."

"Not a chance." Bird argued about the running away from danger part, but she was more than willing to stand back and let him take over.

She'd lost all feeling in her injured arm; her hand was shaking uncontrollably.

Upon joining everyone else in the room, Bullock immediately heard the increasing frequency of the beeping, but it wasn't until he shined his flashlight across to wire that had been tripped from the door opening over to the corner of the room that he knew without a doubt he hadn't misheard Bird's warning.

"You gotta be kidding me…" He breathed.

"Jim!" He yelled to his former partner as he looked back and forth from where the trio was, back over to where the the bomb was.

It took another second, another breath before he was able to clear his head enough to focus on what was happening and not let the fear take over.

He already had his jacket off before he ever made it over to the window.  
Wrapping it around his hand; he started breaking what jagged pieces of glass were still left.

They'd need a quick way out.

"We gotta go!" He yelled the obvious out in such a loud voice they could probably hear him across town.

He figured they'd have seconds at best.

And he was right.

Seconds was all they had.

A few handfuls of them -racing by at the speed of light.

The ropes gave way.  
Jim and Bird pulled Harvey to his feet and the group scrambled across the room, out of the window and made a break for it.

Shoes pounding against the pavement, all of them sprinting as fast as they could across the street and further.

Seconds until all that was left of the decrepit building was ripped apart.

The sky set aglow with flames and clouded in smoke.

The force had thrown all four of them a distance from where their feet had last touched the ground.

Bird raised a hand up, reaching around the back of her head and neck, trembling fingers running through her hair with an internal sigh of relief.

The heat had felt so intense she'd been left wondering if her back was up in flames, hair melted.

But luckily, aside from the new bruises and scrapes and further injury of landing on her bad arm, she was okay.

Somehow she gathered the strength to get herself to her feet, only she couldn't walk in a straight line.

Disoriented, she stumbled and spun in a circle, the blur of her surroundings and ringing in her ears causing her stomach turn.

Any relief she'd felt was long gone as she tried to make sense of the scene around her, the burning debris littering the road and nearby ground was all she could see at first.

Once her eyes focused enough she could see movement off to the side, she turned that way but lost her footing and landed with a hard thud on her knees.

With a cry of pain that she couldn't even hear herself, Bird looked around, her terror widened eyes landing on Harvey Dent and Bullock, who were by each other the ground.

Bullock was struggling to sit up, but he was moving.

Harvey Dent's arms were still tied together with rope, but he was alive and moving.

Air violently rushed in and out of her lungs, her chest heaving up and down, breathing more of the smoke in than she should, Bird started to crawl around on the ground.

Completely unaware of the sharp bits of rock and glass cutting into her hands and shredding through the fabric of her pants over her knees.

Jim.  
She had to find Jim.

She was alive and with any luck she'd be able to gain her hearing back, both Harveys' were moving, but she couldn't even find Jim.

Growing evermore frustrated at her inability to find him, Bird was unable to comprehend that all she was effectively managing to crawl in a misshapen circle, seeing the same sights over and over again.

The ringing in her ears seemed to only be growing louder, the pressure in her head increasing by the second.

Coming to a stop from the scrambled frantic crawl, she opened and shut her mouth repeatedly, trying desperately to get her ears to pop; find some kind of relief.

That was when she felt something on her hand.

Opening her eyes up again, she looked down to see a hand laying over the top of hers which she still had pressed onto the dirty ground.

It was Jim.

Letting out a breath that felt like it had been scorching the insides of her lungs, Bird gave up the search she'd been trying and failing at for the last minute.

Giving into her body's fatigue, she dropped from where she was kneeling onto the ground and stared up at the starless sky, still fighting to breathe until she scrounged up enough strength to roll over onto her side.

Where he'd also turned to face her.

Jim's blue eyes met Bird's and the both slowly nodded, letting the other one know they were okay.

That somehow, albeit, a little bloody, broken and bruised, they'd managed to survive

It was a close call, too close -but they'd won.

•••

Bird's eyes traveled over the brushed green hills on the canvas as she stared at the painting on the wall in the hospital waiting room.

There was still a prevalent buzzing in her head, the ringing in her ears had quieted some -but her ears felt clogged now. Like they'd been stuffed full of cotton.

Her arm was re-bandaged and now in a stronger sling to further decrease mobility.

The way she'd landed after being propelled from the explosion had damaged her shoulder, badly enough that the emergency room doctor told she needed to set up a consultation with an orthopedic surgeon.

Jim had a concussion and Bullock was now in a neck brace and had still had a great deal of hearing loss.

Harvey Dent was still back with the doctors.

"Bird?" Bullock yelled, though in his head he felt like he was speaking in a below average voice.

Letting her eyes drop from the painting she'd been focusing on, her sight traveled down the wall until she saw Bullock sitting in a chair across from her, but she didn't say anything.

"You hear me?" He yelled twice as loud as he'd said her name.

Silently, she raised her eyebrows with an expectant look pulling at her features.

"I said I'm gonna need your phone." He yelled and despite the hazardous and tumultuous turn their night had taken, she couldn't deny how comical it was when the other few scattered people seated in the room stared over at him.  
Not understanding why he was yelling so loudly to speak to someone just feet away.

"Why?" Bird questioned, but when he didn't answer her, she cleared her throat and yelled back, "WHY?"

"Evidence!" He stated as if she should have already known the answer, "We need a statement and everything you know about the ones who tried to blow us up tonight."

Blankly, she stared back at him.

If there was one thing she wasn't -it was a snitch.

Seeing a couple uniformed officers stepping off the elevator, Bullock stood up and limped over to them.

"Bird."

Adjusting in her seat, she looked over to where Jim was seated beside her, holding an ice pack to the side of his head and staring at her with knowing eyes.

"You have to cooperate." He stated, "You know that, right?

"Jim-"

He let out a heavy sigh, silencing what she was about to say.

No matter how far she'd gotten from her days of working under Fish Mooney and Falcone, she still adhered to a criminal code of ethics that defied reason sometimes.

Top of that list being her complete and utter refusal to be a rat; apparently even in cases where someone tried to blow her into a hundred pieces.

"I know." He nodded, "I know exactly what you're going to say. But these people have to be stopped. They tried to kill you and Dent-"

"Yeah… I don't know." Bird's face scrunched up, the dirt and soot strains defining the lines the expression left across her forehead, "If they really wanted me dead why didn't they just use a remote detonator?"

Jim's mouth hung open, the pounding in his head was far too intense to try and follow her line of logic here.

Four people total were at the hospital with moderate injuries from being so close to a bomb and yet the main target of said explosion wasn't sure they were trying to kill her?

"How…" He started to ask, "Wait, what?"

"Think about it." Bird insisted, "If you really wanted someone dead. To blow them up… would you really just set a bomb up in a building with a trip wire that may or not be triggered at all? Not only that, but also a bomb that doesn't go off the very second the wire is tripped?"

"Bird-"

"I wouldn't." She continued as if she couldn't hear him, "I'd get the bomb in place, lure them there and be nearby with a remote detonator. And I'd set it off as soon as the person I wanted dead walked inside. Doing it the way they did makes no sense."

"Unless it was a move to try and scare me." Bird added, her head cocking to the side, "Or they're really stupid. Either way, this was a pretty ridiculous way to try and kill someone."

Her eyes cut over to the side when she saw movement, thinking it was Bullock coming back, but instead it was an elderly couple leaving the waiting room as fast as their legs would carry them -all while they kept looking back at her like she was crazy.

Jim glanced at the people leaving the room and then back to her.

She had a point -to an extent.

But even if this was an attempt to scare her, it was carried out by people who clearly didn't care one bit if she died in the process of it.

"What's going on?" Jim pushed, "Does this have anything to do with the bodies found at the construction site? The charity auction hijacking?"

He hadn't brought it up to her until now, but he also hadn't forgotten Barnes' remarks about the construction site not only being funded by Wayne Enterprises, but also that the buildings being erected were the future homeless shelters she'd presented her late parents' plans for.

It was getting increasingly clear that something was going on.  
That she was being targeted and hadn't been open about it with him.

"Excuse me." A nurse said, looking at them as she came out of the double doors just off the small hallway leading to the waiting room, "Are either of you here for Mr. Dent?"

"Yes." Bird said, using her good arm and to help push herself up from the uncomfortable chair and started towards her, "Is he going to be okay?"

"We're going to have to talk about this." Jim called after her.

Giving him little more than a glance over her shoulder, she followed the nurse back through the doors and Jim watched her until the doors had closed and she was out of sight.

He adjusted the ice pack, moving it to the back of his head and using it as a barrier between his skull and the wall as he rested his head back and closed his eyes.

It only felt like mere seconds until the peace and quiet was interrupted.

"Where'd she go?" Bullock questioned, lowering himself back into one of the chairs and swearing from the pain under his breath as he did.

Not having it in him to yell loud enough for his former partner to hear him, Jim barely opened his eyes and just raised his arm and pointed towards the doors she'd left through.

Nodding in understanding, Bullock guessed, "Dent?"

Not waiting on an answer, he asked, "That don't bother you?"

Tilting his head further forward, Jim shot him a look before slowly closing his eyes and laying his head back against the ice pack.

•••

"Hey." Bird greeted, gently knocking on the open door while lingering in the doorway of the hospital room where Harvey was laying in the bed.

"Hey." He greeted back, his voice still a little hoarse, "How's everyone?"

"Alive." Bird walked into the room and surveyed the equipment he was hooked up to.

"Are they keeping you overnight?" She questioned.

"Yeah." Harvey nodded, struggling to raise up further in the bed to speak to her, "Just for monitoring. They said I should probably be able to go home in the next couple of days."

"I'm sure Bullock's going to keep some police stationed here." Bird awkwardly looked around the room as she spoke, "But when they do release you, it's probably not the best idea to go home. Not until this is all over."

"Over?" He repeated back to her.

He knew what she meant by that -that she was going to handle it herself.  
See to it that the people responsible couldn't get close enough to hurt them ever again.

But in a much broader sense of the word he found himself questioning if this would ever truly be over.  
This was the second time in about the same number of years that he'd ended up hospitalized due to injuries he'd received for matters that had to do with Bird.

"Starling-" His sentence was cut short when we was forced to pull in a sharp gasp of air between his clenched teeth when he tried to move again, "You have to cooperate with GCPD and the DA's office on this."

"We both know that's not going to happen." Her head cocked to the side while she stared back at him.

They still had a degree of openness and honesty between them.  
One that had taken them far too long to develop in their relationship.

How naive they'd been in the beginning, thinking an agreement to not talk about Bird's life of crime would be enough to keep the danger at a distance.  
That they'd be able to survive and withstand the tests of time with half-truths and non-disclosures.

"I'm not asking. I'm telling you what has to happen." Harvey argued with her.  
His tone was somber and honest -despite the commanding words being spoken.

"I'm sorry." Bird apologized, finally looking back at him and trying to focus on the least damaged side of his face, "I never wanted this to happen. I -I didn't think you were in any danger."

Rubbing her forehead with her good hand and squinted shut, "I thought they'd come after me or try to get to my brother, maybe even go after Jim. But instead they tried to kill my secretary and used you against me."

The more she thought about Fat Lenny's actions the more she found herself realizing she was dealing with a gang of violent idiots who's wrath she'd underestimated.

"Why did they come after me?" Harvey questioned.

Bird, thinking he meant why'd they come after her ex instead of current boyfriend, openly answered, "Probably because you're an easier target."

A dumbfounded expression took over his face and he stared at her until he reiterated, "No. I meant why is anyone coming after me. What did you get mixed up in this time?"

Biting down on the side of her tongue, she fought the urge to snap at him for the remark.

What did she get mixed up in this time around?

Strangely enough this was a result of her working for Wayne Enterprises and didn't have a thing to do with her criminal ties.

"I didn't mean that the way it sounded." Harvey broke the silence his comments had pulled the room into, before adding with raw honestly, "Not entirely at least."

"This doesn't have a thing to do with Falcone or Oswald or any of them." She told him, "The position I took over in my family's company, the uh, the man who held the title before me got mixed up in some bad stuff. Owed money to the wrong people and even after his debts were paid they kept coming after him."

"And you didn't think about telling anyone?" He questioned, mouth hanging open to bring in another breath, "Before it got to this point?

"I thought I had it under control. I knew about Fat Lenny's crew and I thought once they saw I wasn't going to scare as easily as the person before me that they'd back off, but they didn't. I underestimated them and that's on me, okay? But I'm going to make it right." Bird promised.

She didn't say it out loud, but she'd also thought the crew might not be so willing to go after her considering who her biological father was; even if Falcone was retired.

"I believe you, okay?" Harvey began, "I know that you didn't mean for any of this happen, but Starling, it's gone too far. The only way you're going to make any of this right is by doing the right thing-"

"We have very different definitions of the doing the right thing, Harvey." She cut him off.

"True, but at this moment in time I'm talking about my definition of it-"

"You are laying in hospital bed right now. Yet again because of something I ended up involved in that had nothing to do with you-"

"Exactly!" He loudly spoke over her, "So my words should be carrying some degree of weight about this with you."

Closing his eyes, he pulled in a ragged breath and did his best to calm down once they both became aware of his hear rate rising from the machinery in the room with them to monitor his condition.

"Thank you." He finally spoke again, this time much calmer, "I might have been in danger because of you -but I also know I'm alive right now because you risked your own life to find me."

"You're welcome." Bird stated, her tone a little flat as she eyed him with an unsure expression.

"I just…" He shook his head, "I got targeted for this and could have died for something that didn't have anything to do with me -yet you're practically admitting to me that you're going to take off after the people who did this. Ready to spill blood and claim you did it for me, when that is the last thing I want, Starling."

Her brown eyes were dull when she titled her head back up and peered at him from under her lashes.

"What you want is for me to go against what I believe in." Bird pointed out.

This wasn't how she solved problems.

She didn't run to the police and rat her enemies out.  
No matter how close to the so called 'right path' she walked, she still had rules.

Lines she didn't plan on crossing and one of those was that she'd never be a rat.

This went far beyond just giving the goods she had on Lenny's crew up to Bullock.  
No, that would only be beginning and the ending would fall somewhere around her being called to the stand to testify.

That would ruin any credibility she'd earned in the streets.  
Not to mention mark her as a target for others who might start to wonder what other secrets she'd start to spill.

She couldn't even imagine Falcone's reaction when he'd inevitably find out.

"You don't know what you're asking of me." Bird's voice was much softer now.  
Beaten down and on the verge of total exhaustion.

"I do." Harvey answered in a voice nearly as quiet as her's had been.

Pulling her eyes away from his, she turned and slowly started to walk for the door with a feeling of deja vu setting in.

The last time they were in a situation like this, she'd taken her time leaving the room then as well, giving him all the time in the world to change his mind.

Back then she'd hoped he'd take back what he said when he told her to leave him alone; that every bad thing in his life had been because of her.

This time she wanted him to tell her that he knew what such a move would cost her and that after everything they'd been through, he wouldn't ask that of her.

But he didn't.

He didn't say a word as she left.

And Bird made her way towards the waiting room, left alone with her thoughts and wondering how the person she'd just risked her own life to save could be asking so much from her and seeming to not care about the personal cost she'd pay in the process.

As the automatic doors swung open she walked down the short hall and into the waiting room, Jim sat forward so fast the ice pack he'd been resting his head against fell the floor and Bullock didn't try to get up, but he called out, "He gonna make it?"

Bird nodded at him, took a few more steps into the waiting room before coming to a stop and looking around with a lost expression.

"What happened?" Jim questioned, getting to his feet a little too quick and finding the trauma he'd been though left him weaker than he'd thought and a tinge dizzy.

"Bird?" He questioned walking closer to her and growing alarmed by the emptiness that had taken over her eyes when she stared back at him and didn't say anything.

His eyes darted towards the doors of the hospital wing she'd came from, "What happened?" He repeated.

Bullock eyed them for a moment before he stood up with a groan and started their direction.  
He didn't know what they were talking about, but he couldn't hear a damn thing from where he was sitting.

Bird turned to face him as he joined where she and Jim were standing.

Reaching into her pocket, she took her phone out and offered it to Bullock, "It won't do you any good. They used a burner, but…"

She closed her eyes, took another breath and finally said, "But I'll tell you whatever you want to know."

•••

* * *

 **A/N - I owe a special shout-out and thanks to: SmellYourScentForMiles, Shadow knight1121, xenocanaan, Love. Fiction. 2018, Munyue, amelia, AGBreads and the Guests who've been kind enough to review since my last update.**

 **Also, for the guests who inquired about Bird and Jerome - yes, when I get to seasons 3 & 4, they will definitely be having more scenes. ^_^**

 **Thoughts? Lol  
Think Bird will really let the GCPD handle the gang situation or will she have a change of heart?**

 **I know I say it at the end of nearly every chapter, but I really do appreciate all of the support you guys have shown and I really hope I haven't lost too many of my readers as I'm heading into season 3 very soon.**

 **Thank you for reading.  
xx**


	34. Tangled Up in You

**XXXIV**

" _Stay true to yourself; because there are very few people who will stay true to you." - Unknown_

* * *

•••

Bird's stomach was in knots as she tried to read the morning paper.

She hadn't gotten any sleep the night before.  
Well, if she was being honest she hadn't really slept since the night they'd barely escaped being blown to bits by a bomb.

The same night Harvey Dent had proved he wasn't above guilt tripping to get what he wanted in the end.  
And what he wanted was for her to snitch on Lenny and his crew, to hand over every ounce of evidence she had against them and go on the record to testify against them.

Some of the gang had already been rounded up and brought in on lesser charges while Bullock, as acting captain, spearheaded the deeper investigation into the gang.  
Which would ultimately bring down their violent crime syndicate.

A task which wouldn't be possible without her cooperation and today was the morning she was supposed to be deposed.

Closing her eyes, she laid the paper in her lap and leaned her head back against the headrest in her car as her driver drove them towards the courthouse.

This was wrong.  
She knew it.

This wasn't like when Jim was on the force and would come to her and Oswald for help with various problems that arose, this was entirely different.

This was her throwing herself to the wolves and waiting to be ripped to shreds.

One minute she'd been debating with herself about telling her driver to turn around and the next she'd fallen asleep.

"Miss Falcone."

Bird blinked her eyes a few times as she started to walk up. Her entire face twisting up in confusion, no one had ever referred to her by her biological father's name.

Quickly straitening up in her seat, Bird realized it wasn't even her driver behind the wheel, it was man she'd never seen before.

"We're here, ma'am." He stated.

Peering out from her tinted window she saw they weren't at the courthouse.  
They weren't even within the city limits anymore.

It only took her a few seconds to catch on, even in her drowsy state.

The dark cars parked across the street from an old cafe, the men in suits standing guard at the door.

Falcone might have been retired, but he still traveled like a mafia boss, still had the same protections as when he'd been ruling the city.

As the new driver opened the car door for her, Bird stepped out onto the sidewalk and smoothed her dress out, lingering a little longer than necessary before she made her way towards the doors.

There were only a few other patrons inside the old cafe, all of them more than several years her senior.

Her eyes traveled up from the rustic wood floor to where Falcone stood from his table upon spotting her entrance.

"My dear." He greeted with a nod.

"Don Falcone." Bird's voice was low and calm as she stepped forward to greet him.

After the usual exchange of cheek kisses, she took her seat across from him and questioned, "Where's my driver?"

"He's fine." Falcone answered as he sat back down in his own seat and eyed her in silence for a few seconds before asking, "How's the shoulder?"

"It's been better." Bird's lips pressed into a thin line, "I might need surgery."

"Well, let's hope it doesn't come to that." He stated, taking a drink from his coffee, "But even if it does; I wouldn't worry too much. You've got youth on your side."

Bird's gaze fell to the table as the waitress sat a drink down in front of her and offered up a small smile before walking away.

"I was under the impression you were going back to your estate in the south." Bird cleared her throat.  
She wasn't even sure why she was attempting to make small talk with him.

It was abundantly clear why he'd had her brought there this morning.  
Word had clearly gotten back to him about her plans of working with the GCPD to bring down Fat Lenny's crew.

"I wanted to stay in Gotham for a while. Keep an eye on things."

"You mean keep an eye on me." Bird corrected.

With a single nod he didn't waste time in pointing out, "Good thing I did."  
"Someone has to stop you from making such a grave mistake as the one you set out to make this morning."

And that was all it took.  
One look from him, full of judgement and disappointment to make her feel like she couldn't do anything right in her life.

"I-" Bird started to defend, but he wasn't ready to give her the time to explain her side of it just yet.

"You know very well what happens to snitches in this city. What I can't seem to wrap my mind around is why you'd expect the police department to clean up this mess you've landed in. You could have called me." Falcone took another drink of his coffee, his gaze still heavy on her as she avoided his line of sight.

"I screwed up-" Bird started to say, but he interrupted her, "You can say that again."

"By underestimating what used to just be a small gang, but I'm handling it. I didn't need to call you for something like this." She answered, biting down on the side of her tongue to bite back a snappy remark, "I have the situation under control."

"Clearly you don't have anything under control." His tone let her know just how much he wasn't buying a single word she was trying to sell him, "Did you really think I'd let you do this?"

"It's my decision." Bird argued, her eyes starting to grow a little dark.

"It isn't." He argued.  
Readjusting in his seat, he leaned forward some and lowered his voice as he spoke, "You want to make your own choices -I understand that. You chose a cooperate job over ruling the crime world -I accept that."

"Look at me." He instructed when she continually avoided his eyes.

Once he had her attention, Falcone continued, "You might not wear the Falcone name, but it's now widespread knowledge that you are my daughter and no child of mine is going to be a rat."

She didn't say anything.  
Truth be told she didn't have much of an argument.  
She'd known all along this was the wrong decision to make.

Her every instinct had been against it since the night in the hospital.  
Maybe in some ways she was hoping something like this would happen, that someone would intervene and stop her before it was too late.

"What is this?" He asked.  
Reading the look on her face and seeing a glint of relief in her eyes; he knew this wasn't her.

She not only knew better than to turn rat, but she'd never conducted herself in such a way in the past.

"Is this Gordon?" He guessed; under the assumption that her deepening relationship with Jim might have been the source of this sudden willingness to work with the GCPD and DA's office.

"No." She truthfully answered.

In the beginning he'd been urging her to work with Bullock and the strike-force to put a stop to Lenny's violence, but in the last few days he kept asking if she was sure she wanted to do this.

"Harvey." Bird finally admitted.  
Reaching for her coffee, she took a small sip and repeated in a voice that didn't carry over a whisper, "Harvey Dent."

Falcone let out a heavy sigh, unable to comprehend whatever hold it was that this district attorney seemed to still have on her -even long after their relationship had ended.

"Dent?" He finally repeated back, pausing to enjoy another drink of his morning coffee, "He's still that important to you?"

"We have history." Bird quickly answered, "Lenny's crew went after him because of me. He could have died-"

"But he's alive and well." Falcone interrupted, "Sounds to me like you got him safely out of the situation you feel guilty for getting him into. You understand that you owe him nothing else?"

When she looked at him from across the table and their eyes locked, he took the opportunity to make it very clear how he felt about about her ex-fiance, "I never cared for him."

"Yeah, well, I did." Bird cleared her throat as her line of sight fell back to the table.

She still did to an extent.  
Enough to risk her life at the chance of saving his.

"Well…" Falcone began, pulling in a breath as he stood up and looked at where his biological daughter was still seated, "You don't need to worry about Lenny any longer."

"What does that mean?" Bird's eyebrows furrowed.

"It means I'll take care of it."

"No." Bird scrambled to her own feet to better face him, though she stood several inches shorter than his imposing stature, "This is my problem. My mess -and I'll clean it up myself."

"Bird." He shook his head back and forth.  
If her idea involved GCPD or the DA's office then it would only cause a bigger mess.  
Just like the one he was currently trying to bail her out of.

"I can do this." Bird promised.

And despite all of the progress they'd made over the last year, she was left feeling like she still needed to prove herself to the Don.

Something she thought she was done with over a year ago.

••• **later that day •••**

The sun was starting to set by the time Bird reached the building she was supposed to meet Fat Lenny at.

"Well, well, well." The balding middle age gangster called out once he spotted her.  
Arms that were folded across his chest spread wide with a welcome, "Looky here boys!"  
His voice boomed an echo through the large open space as he spoke to his men, "Starling Wayne."

"You-" He pointed at her as he stood to his feet from the metal folding chair, "I didn't think you were going to show."

"It's Bird." She corrected, slowing to a stop well before reaching the chair across the card table in place for her, "And what choice did you leave me?"

"Hey, now!" He laughed, "Water under the bridge now, right? After tonight we're gonna have an understanding and no one else needs to get hurt."

Bird lowered her head some, scanning the vacant warehouse and watching to see exactly where he'd stationed his men before her gaze landed on him from under her dark coated lashes.

Lenny didn't appear to be armed himself.  
He hadn't ordered his men to draw their guns.

It was insulting; that this man who'd threatened her and came after the people close to her hadn't had the thought cross his mind that she might be there to retaliate instead of give in.

Had it really been that long since she'd made a name for herself on the streets?

"You got what we talked about?" Lenny continued to drive the meeting forward, his greedy eyes focused on the briefcase by her side.

"It's all here." She nodded and resumed her forward advance to the table.

She'd taken the sling off of her arm before going in.  
Not that she could feel much of anything in her shoulder after calling a doctor earlier that day that had given her a shot of numbing medication right into her shoulder.

Bird sat the case down, spun it around and opened it to reveal a large amount of money inside.  
But the very second Lenny reached for the cash with his grabby sausage fingers, Bird slammed the case shut so fast that he could have easily lost a couple digits had he had them inside.

"I think we need to talk first. Clear the air." Bird suggested, latching the briefcase shut and staring him down.

"Never been much for foreplay." He sighed, "Always preferred to get right down to business. But sure, I'll humor ya." With that he motioned with his hand for her to go on.

"I underestimated you, Lenny." Bird admitted, keeping her hands on the case of money as she sat down in the seat that had been set out for her, "See, back when I was working for Fish Mooney, you ran a small time crew. Nothing like the numbers you're running now."

"Yeah, yeah…" He nodded, eyes narrowing, "You know I think I remember seeing you around the ole dive now."  
His eyes left her face, traveling down her body until the table's edge blocked his view, "You grew up nice. Good for you."

Completely misreading the situation, Lenny laughed, "Apology excepted. Times have changed and we've both upped our game. You with the corner office and soon I'll be running the crime game in this city. You keep up your end of the bargain and I got no reason to come after you and yours."

Bird's glossed lips curved up into a smile and a nearly manic sounding laugh came out before she could stop herself.

"Apology?" She echoed.  
Waving a hand through the air and trying to regain her composer, "You really think you have what it takes to be a major player in Gotham?"

At this point she wasn't sure which was more comical.  
The fact that he really believed he was getting his way or that he saw himself worthy of running the underworld.

"You think that's all I am now?" Bird questioned, a smile still visible on her face, "Someone with an executive job and corner office? Who would be so easily rattled from your lame attempts at intimidation that I set up this meeting to give you what you want?"

"I mean, my god!" Bird exclaimed with another near fit of laughter, "Did it really never cross your mind that you messed with the wrong person? That maybe -just maybe, you underestimated me too?"

Lenny moved forward to the edge of his seat, the metal beneath him creaked from the shift in his weight.

"You really are as crazy as they say, huh?" He teased, still clearly not feeling threatened in the slightest.

She'd walked into a meeting with no less than a dozen of his men by herself and thought she was in any position to be hurling insults and making threats?

"Not the brightest crayon in the box?" He added, "That's okay. Your money is still as good as anyone else s."

"Really?" Bird nearly choked on her exhale, "You're minutes away from choking to death on your own blood and you're insinuating that I'm the dumb one? Lenny, come on."

Slamming her hand down on the table so hard it shook beneath the impact she yelled, "You didn't even bring a gun to this meeting. Do you how insulting that is?"

"Alright, that's enough. One more word out of you and I'll-"  
Lenny's threat was cut short by the deafening sound of both the front and back entrances to the building being kicked open.

Followed by a rain of rapid gunfire, bullets ricocheting and shells pinging against the floor that was starting to run red with the blood of his own men.

Even though they had been armed, they didn't stand a chance in the ambush.

Terror widened eyes seemed to take up the majority of his face as he looked around at his slain followers and the leather clad individuals standing among the carnage.

"You…" Lenny seemed to be already be suffocating on his own air, "You… no, no… no, this…"

"No, no. Please don't kill me…" Victor Zsasz taunted him in a sing-song voice, taking the liberty to fill the blanks before letting out a laugh of his own as he holstered his weapons and stepped up to the side of the table.

"You're going to kill me?" Lenny shouted in broken speech, finding it hard to take a deep breath.  
Sweat was profusely dripping down from his forehead and stinging his eyes.

"I think he's finally catching on." Victor commented as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a switchblade knife and flipped it open.

"Bird." He smiled wickedly at her as he offered up the knife with the handle facing her way.

"Thank you, Victor."

Lenny watched as Bird took the knife in her hand and adjusted her grip on it.

"You will pay for this!" He spat over the table surface with every syllable, "My men will go after everyone you've ever cared about. They will avenge-"

"No, see… I don't think so." Bird cut his protests short, "You loyalists have all been wiped out."  
She motioned the still warm corpses around them.

"But the rest? The rest only worked for you out of fear. You went around swallowing up all these other small time crews to grow your man power, but there is so much more to being a leader than simply ruling out of fear." Pointing to the tip of knife in his direction Bird explained, "It's about respect and loyalty. Ruling on fear alone won't get you very far."

Lenny watched as Zsasz moved over and took a seat in the chair Bird had been sitting on.  
It was unsettling the way the assassin kept smiling at him with a wild and bloodthirsty look in his dark eyes.

"No." Bird clicked her tongue, "I imagine I'll get more thank you cards than empty threats for doing away with the likes of you."

"After all…" She smiled again, "How do you think I knew exactly how many men you'd have with you? Or be able to set this up so perfectly on _your_ territory?"

When she saw the realization starting to set in she nodded.

It had been with the help and knowledge of his own gang that she'd been able to plan and execute the events of the night so perfectly.  
He'd been betrayed.

"You brought this on yourself." Bird coldly stated.

"Wait!" He held his hands out in front of him, "It don't gotta go down like this."

"Oh, but it does." Bird feigned an apologetic expression, "It's the perfect ending actually. Cut the head off the snake and the body will die. This problem you created for me will die along with you."

Swallowing hard, he found himself unable to take his gaze off the gleam of light reflecting on the razor sharp blade.

This was essentially the same method he'd been using for months.  
Taking out other capos and bringing their gangs into his.

"I'm sorry." He was willing to say or do anything now to prolong his life.  
He could see what a fatal error he'd made in thinking she could bullied into giving him what he wanted, but it was too and far little too late.

"You should be." Bird reprimanded.

"We could work togeth-"

One quick slice of the blade was all it took to silence him mid-word.  
Bird had long grown tired of Lenny still thinking he had any sway over the situation.

He got as powerful as he was by not being afraid to spill a little blood.  
What he hadn't taken into consideration was that Bird was willing to spill a lot of it.

"Thought he was never going to shut up." Victor commented as he rose from the chair and stood next to Bird while they watched Lenny's body violently shaking on the floor where he'd fell.  
Choking on his own blood; just as Bird had promised.

When all movement and sound from Lenny had ceased, Bird pulled in a deep breath and handed the crimson stained blade back to Victor.

There was a shine in his eyes as he took the knife back.  
She should be the one running the city, he was sure of it.

She was a Falcone after all and despite choosing to ignore her roots, she was still made in Carmine's likeness.

"Let's go." Bird said as she turned and walked away, doing her best to step over the puddles of blood and bodies on the cement floor.

Picking up the case from the table, Victor opened it and took out the money owed to their help. Laying the stacks of cash on the table, he nodded to the group he'd brought along for backup and instructed, "You know what to do."

•••

Harvey rose to his feet from the steps when he saw a dark car pull up alongside the walkway to his ex-fiance's townhouse.

The dim lighting from the moon, along with the dark tinted windows on the car made it impossible to see who was inside.

When the passenger door opened and Bird stepped out, he breathed a sigh of relief.

It was a few hours prior that he'd gotten word that Bird had retracted her statement about Fat Lenny's gang after she'd missed her appointment to be deposed earlier in the day.

His mind had immediately went to worse case scenario.  
The gang had gotten to her.

Either threatened her badly enough she refused to testify against them or even worse, they'd killed her in order to keep her silent.

"Harvey?" Bird questioned as she shut the car door behind her, "Are you okay? What are you doing here?"

"I've been trying to call you." He stepped closer, "What happened-"  
He'd started to ask her why she'd retracted her statement, but stopped when he heard another car door open and looked across the top of the car to see Victor Zsasz had gotten out of the driver's seat.

Harvey's gaze drifted back over to Bird; now unable to miss how startled she seemed to find him outside of her house.

She was suspiciously clutching the top of her coat closed, but when she turned her head to look at Zsasz, Harvey saw the blood spatter across her cheek and the side of her neck.

"What did you do?" He demanded to know, voice raising with each spoke word.

"Maybe we should talk inside, yeah?" Bird asked, her voice a little high pitched and her eyebrows raised.

The last thing she wanted was to have a fight with her ex on the sidewalk in front of her house.

He didn't budge, watching her with a near dumbfounded expression on his face as she fished her keys out of her coat pocket and briskly walked towards the front doors.

"You coming?" Bird asked as she pushed the front door open and turned back to see what was taking him so long.

"I…" He breathed, his eyes going back to where the assassin was still standing next to the car.

To Harvey's dismay, Zsasz cracked a predatory smile and raised a hand to wave at him.

"Goodnight, Victor." Bird loudly called out.

"Bird." He replied a nod, before getting back into the car and driving off.

"They're all dead…" Harvey guessed, "Aren't they?"

"I'm not talking about this outside." Both her voice and her expression grew serious as she nodded for him to come inside.

Begrudgingly, he walked up the stairs and into the entryway of the luxury town-home and turned to watch her shut the door behind him.

But when she didn't stop to speak to him and instead continued on her way into the kitchen, he let out a frustrated noise and followed behind her, "Am I going to get an answer?"

"What happened to you not wanting to know details about that part of my life?" She arched brow.

"I think we're long past that, don't you?"

Bird could hear the anger seeping into his tone.

Unzipping her coat, she took it off and hung it on the back of one of the bar chairs at the kitchen island.

When she turned back around to face him, he could see the dark stains on her clothes.

It was blood.  
And it wasn't her own.

"What did you expect me to do, Harvey?" She asked, mirroring his anger as she threw her arms out to the side.

"I expected you to not murder anyone!" He shouted.  
His eyes closed while he pulled in a deep breath and tried to calm down, but that was something that never happened easily -especially when dealing with her.

"They got to you-" She began, motioning to his black eye, "It was only a matter of time until they tried to get to Bruce. They weren't going to stop."

"We were so close, Starling." Harvey sighed, his shoulders slouching, "So close to making a difference here. If we'd gotten the entire gang behind bars it would have sent a message to other criminals-"

"They wouldn't have stayed in Blackgate." She argued, "I underestimated them, okay? Back when I first heard of Fat Lenny's crew they were nothing to worry about, but they'd combined forces with a few other gangs and they were dangerous. Too dangerous."

"This is so much bigger than this one crew." He paused, running his tongue over his lips, "This was a real chance for change, this was-"

"Harvey." Bird interrupted, "I did what I had to do."

"All you had to do was keep your word!" His voice raised again.

"Which would have been the equivalent to signing my own death warrant!" Her voice raised to match his, "You've seen what happens to snitches, Harvey."

This was usually the time in their arguments and fights that she'd start to shut down, almost as if she were readying herself for the full wrath of his anger and all that came with it.  
But not this time.

Instead, Bird stepped closer to him and jabbed a finger into the center of his chest, "And shame on you for trying to use what's left of my feelings for you against me, to guilt me into what you wanted."

"Shame on me?" He exclaimed, knocking her hand away from him and looking genuinely shocked at the allegation.  
After all she was still wearing clothes stained with someone else s blood and acting like he was in the wrong.

"Yeah." Bird nodded, her head cocked to the side when she added, "I am sorry that you got dragged into this and even more sorry that you were injured because of it, but I saved your life that night and I don't really owe you anything else.

She'd expected an argument from him, possibly even fly into a rage as he'd done so many times in the past.  
But he seemed more shocked than anything.

"Starling-" He began.  
Her name came out mixed with a sound comparable to the air being knocked out of him.

"Thank you for coming by to check on me." Bird cut him off, knowing that for the night at least they didn't have anything else to talk about, "But it's getting late and you should go."

"Wait…" Harvey breathed, "You can't just expect me to sit on this. You killed someone; probably more than just one someone. I'm legally bound to report this."

"No you're not." Bird argued, still standing like a stone and refusing to back down in the slightest, "You care about your career far to much for that."

When his face twisted up in confusion, she clarified, "Loose lips sink ships, Harvey."

"Are you…" His voice trailed and off and just when she thought his features couldn't contort any more than they already had, his expression deepened, "Are you threatening me?"

"No." Bird's eyebrows raised, "Only reminding you that you had inside knowledge of crimes I committed both before and during the span of time we were together."

The lines across his forehead faded and his expression loosened.

What she was essentially saying was that if he did anything to try and bring her down, that she'd most certainly take him with her.

Harvey's eyes traced over her face, the beautifully crafted features he'd grown long-familiar with; jewel-like brown eyes fringed with long lashes, the dusting of freckles spanning across her nose that washed out into her cheeks, her full lips that he used to never get enough of kissing.

So familiar and yet now so foreign.  
What a strange feeling it was.

"I don't even know who you are anymore." He voiced his thoughts.  
The anger he'd felt had faded, something more like sadness had taken it's place.

"You do." Bird simply answered, her voice quiet when she added, "You just don't like it."

The situation felt strange to her as well.  
Standing in a room with someone she cared about enough to run right into danger for, but who had no problem asking the impossible from her time and time again.

Then again, she considered, maybe she also kept expecting the impossible from him in wanting his acceptance wholly of who she was.

In truth, maybe somewhere deep down there was still a part of her wishing he could see her side more clearly than he did.  
But it didn't matter. Not anymore, because she no longer thought she needed it.

"You're just used to getting things your way." Bird added on after a shared moment of eye contact in silence that neither had been willing to back down from, "But that's not how it works with us anymore, Harvey."

"What-" He started to ask, but she kept talking.

"We still care about each other. I mean, I knowingly ran right into a trap in hopes that you were still alive and I'd get there in time. You were sitting less than thirty feet from a bomb and instead of begging for help, you told me to go and save myself." She pointed out, "But you keep operating under the impression that I owe you something when that couldn't be further from the truth."

Bird made sure to look him in the eyes when she repeated, "I don't owe you anything."

His mouth hung slightly agape, his wordless tongue feeling crowded behind his teeth.

His gaze dropped to the floor before he looked back to her face.

There was a time early on in their relationship when what he wanted most in the world was to know her secrets. For her to be an open book, because all she did was keep everything -nearly every thought and any emotion under lock and key.

Sometimes misfortune is the price you pay for getting exactly what you've wished for.

Because there she stood with blood smeared on her face, giving him nothing but brutal honesty, having long moved past denying who she was -and it was a color he wished he'd never saw her painted in.

That's the problem with opening Pandora's Box; whatever evil comes out can't be shoved back in and you must live with it.

"It's la-"

"It's late." He cut her off with an echo of her own words, "Yeah, I should go."

She eyed him as he turned to leave.  
Keeping only to herself that Falcone had all but forced her hand in the Fat Lenny situation.

When Harvey reached the door and opened it, he lingered in the door way, not sure what else could even be said in this situation.

"Goodnight, Starling." He cleared his throat.

Sometimes the only thing left to be said is a parting.

"Night, Harvey." Bird answered, watching the door until he was gone and the wood barrier closed behind him.

Once he was outside, he let out a heavy sight that turned to white fog in the frigid night air.

After he stepped of the last step, he paused to zip his coat the rest of the way up, only when he started to travel down the walkway he was brought to a stop again.  
This time by the sight of Jim Gordon, who also slowed his pace to a halt when he spotted the DA.

"Harvey." Jim called out with a forced smile and a nod as he continued back on his path towards the door.

"Jim." Harvey nodded as they walked right past one another with barely a glance.

It was when Jim reached the stairs to the door when he realized the receding sound of footsteps had stopped.  
With his hands still tucked in his pockets away from the cold he turned back around with a questioning look on his face.

"I just..." Harvey breathed with a near laugh, "I couldn't figure it out, you know?"  
Motioning towards the townhouse, he continued, "I thought you got a different version of her. The girl I met was working at a mob-managed nightclub and kept saying she wanted something else but just couldn't shake those criminal roots. Now she's got a job that helps make the community better… her name in the papers for doing things right instead of wrong and I just couldn't understand what you could have possibly done or said any differently to her than I did."

"I didn't do anything." Jim answered; now with slightly narrowed eyes.

"The point is, I thought she changed-" Harvey began, but was silenced when Jim took a step closer and defended, "She has."

"That's where you're wrong." Harvey shook his head, "She's exactly the same person she's always been -hands stained in someone else's blood. You know, I- I… even if she wanted to change, I don't know that she could."

Harvey's face was still bruised from the beating he'd taken. Life and death situations can sometimes bring out the worst in a person and so Jim bit down on the side of his tongue, choosing to hold his silence over getting into an argument that he doubted would do any good.

Silently, he turned and walked up the stairs. That was the plan at least, until he found himself unable to open the door.

"A few weeks ago, when we were trying to stop Galavan all over again, his sister Tabitha got badly injured-"  
Jim was unable to hold his tongue any longer.

Harvey turned back around to face him, "I heard."  
The look on his face showed he had no idea what this had to do with anything they'd been talking about.

"Yeah, well, did you hear that the only reason she lived was because of Bird?" Jim questioned.  
"I was there. I saw it. After all the pain that family caused her and she still helped Tabitha Galavan."

He was back down the entryway stairs before he was even aware of his movements.

"You're right to begin with. She's not the same person you knew. How could she be? Bird's been to hell and back and somehow she's still standing. And I… I can't take the credit for that, but I've been right there beside her since I got out of Blackgate, so don't stand there and act like you know anything about what's been going on or what she's still going through, because you don't." Jim's stopped walking closer, but his voice raised.

"Since you escaped from prison." Harvey corrected, followed by a nod towards the house, "Since she used criminal connections and broke countless laws to help you."  
With a shrug, he commented, "Maybe you're the one who's changed Jim."

With that he turned and walked away.  
Not wanting to argue with Jim anymore than the former detective wanted to have words with him.

Even after he made it inside the house, Jim was still a little angered by the confrontation he'd had with Harvey Dent just outside.

Harvey been right, of course, at least about some of it.

Jim had changed, he was well aware of that himself, but just like he'd said in Bird's defense, he'd been through far too much to be the same person he was a couple years ago or even several months ago.

He'd already bypassed the coat closet when he started to shrug out of his coat and found Bird in the kitchen.

"What happened?" He questioned as he draped his coat over the corner of the kitchen island.

When he turned back to look at her he could see the dried blood on her face, a nearly startling contrast to her fair skin as she stared back at him.

"Oh." He breathed, his eyebrows raised at the realization of exactly what had taken up her time for the day and kept her from showing up to be deposed in the Fat Lenny investigation, visually checking her well-being he questioned, "You okay?"

"I'm fine, Jim." Bird answered, making eye contact for a split second before her eyes darted over to where she'd left her own coat; her own bloodstained coat.

Not missing the small nervous tick, Jim looked over to see what she'd unintentionally looked at,

"I know you're probably wondering what happened today-" She started to say before her voice trailed off and he saw her shoulders slouch, "Where do you want me to start?"

Jim eyed her in silence, knowing without a doubt that whatever he asked her he'd get a honest answer to.

It was startling at times and even caused him to be hesitant before he'd ask something he wasn't sure he wanted to the answer too.

He went over to the refrigerator and got a bottle of beer out, while Bird stayed where she'd been standing, following him with only her eyes and waiting on his next move.

It wasn't until he'd gotten a drink or two down, that he knew what he wanted answered first and so it came out as more of a statement than a question, "I want to know what happened in that hospital room the night of the bombing."

Clearly caught off guard, Bird's forehead lined.  
She'd spent the last few minutes trying to figure out the best way to tell him she'd taken out a small time crime boss and had several of his men executed.

"What do you think happened?" She countered, her eyes falling to the dark glass bottle that was already half-empty.

"I don't know." He shrugged and leaned back against the counter, "You never told me. All I know is you were a hundred percent against cooperating with GCPD before you went in -then you came back out and you were ready to give the police everything you had."

"He was in pain from everything." Bird's admission started out with a defense of her ex's behavior, an old habit she still hadn't entirely broken, "Obviously he wanted the people who hurt him brought to justice and so…"

Pulling in a breath, Bird explained, "He not-so-nicely reminded me that despite spending some years putting dangerous people behind bars, that the only serious threats to his life have come from his involvement with me."

Stopping with the bottle just inches from his mouth, Jim asked, "He guilt tripped you into it?"

"Yes!" Her tone was snappier than he'd expected, "I am capable of remorse, thank you very much."

"No, Bird that's not what I meant." He was quick to try and set the record straight, but her formerly benevolent expression had turned into a scowl.  
She'd had enough of people trying to make her feel like a bad person for one day.

She was cognizant of how she didn't seem to feel things the same way as other people, but that didn't mean she was incapable of feeling.

Blowing out a sigh, he sat the almost empty bottle of beer down next to him and shook his head -why did it feel like everyone only wanted to argue with him today?

"Then what did you mean?" She questioned, before the angry expression softened and she attempted to hold back a smile, "Why? Were you worried? Jealous?"

"Okay. Stop." Jim pointed a finger at her, "That's not funny"  
One of the things that always got under his skin was her apparent inability to take anything seriously.

"Stopping." She teased, holding her hands up in surrender.  
But it wasn't more than a few seconds later that she pushed, "It was jealousy, right? You thought maybe in some moment of weakness and seeing him injured I kissed him or something?"

"Bird." Jim sighed, but seeing the playful gleam in her eyes started to bring a smile to his own lips.  
He knew she was taking a jab at the first time they'd kissed, which just so happened to be at the hospital the year before.

A moment of weakness between them that still to this day they'd admit shouldn't have happened when it did considering they were both in committed relationships at the time.

It was nice for a moment to see her in better spirits than she'd been lately -even if it was at both their expenses.

"Nothing happened." Bird promised, "Just me feeling like crap because he got hurt and him using that against me and pointing out that I should have told someone about Lenny before it got that far."

His expression changed for a split second, eyebrows furrowed and then back to normal, but it was enough of falter for Bird to notice.

What she hadn't noticed was how she'd just admitted that she'd opened up to Harvey Dent about what had been happening before she'd told him.

"What?" Bird asked.

"What about today?" Jim asked.

"He came here to berate me for retracting my statement." She shrugged, leaving a great deal of their conversation out.

"I'm talking about with Lenny." Jim sighed, making a point to finish the beer before he spoke.

"We don't have to worry about him any more." Bird tried to go into as little detail as possible with that answer too, but it wasn't enough for Jim who shot her a look silently saying she was going to need to give him more than that.

"I think I might have gone through with it." She shrugged, "I left this morning for the meeting with the DA's office as planned, but as it turns out Don Falcone had other plans."

"I thought he went back down south."

"As did I." Bird glanced over her shoulder when Jim walked over to the sink, "But apparently he stuck around. Probably for the best, someone needed to stop me from making that big of a mistake."

Her eyes dropped to the floor, knowing she should have been there to stop herself.  
That she never should have let Harvey send her on a guilt trip bad enough that she'd be willing to go against everything she ever stood for.

"So what happened?" Jim's voice was quiet as he walked back up to her.

"I did what I had to do." She asserted.

"Mhm." Jim hummed with a nod and questioning look as he folded up the washcloth he'd ran under the warm tap water in his hands and wiped some of the blood from her cheek.

Holding it out for her to see, he watched her as her eyes lingered on the red stained cloth and then looked back at him in silence.

She closed her eyes, but didn't back away when he gently took her face in one hand and continued to clean the blood off of her with the cloth in the other.

When he was done, she finally let out the breath she'd been holding.

"He wasn't going to stop, Jim." Bird said, "There is no reasoning with some people. You give an inch and they take a mile and then keep coming back for more. Lenny would have kept going after the people I care about, probably wouldn't have been long until he was going after Bruce and I couldn't allow that to happen. I didn't have a choice, but I also didn't go after anyone who didn't deserve it. Just Lenny and his loyalists that would have come after me."

"You did have a choice." Jim corrected, but his tone wasn't harsh.  
Instead he sounded far more understanding than she'd been expecting, "But I understand and I've seen first hand the lengths you'll go to for the people important to you."

Despite initially insisting she cooperate with the police, he'd had a change of the heart the past several days.  
As much as he wanted the gang behind bars, he cared more about her safety and had spent several sleepless nights going over the possible repercussions of her testifying against Lenny.

He now realized he should have said it out loud, but all along he'd known that whatever decision she'd make had to be hers alone.

The sense of relief she felt was enough to nearly bring her legs out from under her.  
Not having to explain over and over why she made the choices she did.

It seemed to happen so rarely that she nearly forgot just how comforting it was to just be understood.

He watched the alleviation flood over her face and offered up a small smile as he tossed the soiled cloth over to the sink and said in a voice just over a whisper, "Come here."

With a smile of her own, Bird stepped forward into his waiting and open arms, her body sinking laxly into his strong frame as she let out a breath that carried the last of her left over anxiety away.

"Most of all." Jim pressed a kiss to the side of her head as he held her, "I'm just happy you're home and safe."

"Home?" Bird's voice was a little muffled from his shirt.  
He could hear the smile in her voice, he didn't need to see her face for the proof when she quietly asked, "You talking about the house or you?"

Jim knew exactly what she meant.

Over all, home is a place to belong. Somewhere warm and safe away from the rest of the world. A comfort that could describe a person just as easily as it could brick and mortar.

His arms tightened around her and with a chuckle, he answered, "Both,"

She wasn't sure how long they stood like that in the middle of the kitchen; not that it mattered, those moments never felt like they lasted long enough anyways.

"Hey…" She whispered, pulling back just enough to look at him so he could see just how serious she was when she said, "You don't need to worry about Harvey. That's in the past where it belongs and where it's going to stay."

"You gotta talk to me." His forehead sank against hers, "I'm the one you should have told about what was going on."

Bird bit back the urge to remind him that it wasn't as if she sought out Harvey to spill her troubles to; that she'd only told him was what was going on because he wanted to know why he'd been targeted by a gang.

After all, she understood where he was coming from.  
She'd have been hurt and suspicious if he was telling Barbara or Lee his problems instead of her.

They weren't each others first loves, both of them had people who'd claimed their hearts before, but Bird had been choosing to focus more on the present.  
Something that was easy with his wanting nothing to do with Barbara and Lee having left town.

She realized it must be harder for him to do the same when Harvey Dent was right there in his face and though Jim never said anything, she could imagine her mad rush to save him from Lenny's plans probably didn't help matters.

"Right now is what counts." Bird took a step back, laying her arms on his shoulders and holding onto the back of this head and neck, "It doesn't matter who or what came before."

"You are what's important to me and I'm sorry if I made you feel less than that." She added, setting the record straight and his mind at ease with the simple statement, "You're who I want, Jim."

"Me too." His voice was low, he pulled her against him, her body curving against his, his arms folded around her, eyes magnetized by each other.

So close her breath became his; air that had left her lungs and settled deep within his own.  
Hearts picking up speed.

Bird closed what space was left between them and leaned in almost painfully slow till her mouth pressed against his, until he turned his head slightly to the side, enough to break the kiss but not enough to cease contact.

His breath was humid against her face, sending her heart into a flutter with his admission, "You are exactly who I want too."

Their mouths collided, her fingernails raked over his scalp and his hands started to find their way up under the edge of her shirt.

A tangled mess of desire and erratic breathing, tongues surviving off of nothing but the taste of each others mouths, holding onto each other with everything they had -like they'd never let go.

•••

* * *

 **A/N - Did everyone hear the news? Gotham was renewed for a 5th season, but they're also saying it's going to be the final season. Very bittersweet for this fangirl.**

 **Thank you all for reading. I've been struggling some with staying inspired to write, hence this update nearly taking an entire month.  
That being said, I owe so much gratitude to: Shadow knight1121, nofilter, ****xenocanaan, xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, Munyue, Love. Fiction. 2018, amelia, SmellYourScentForMiles, Katniss789, DancingDorisDay, Rasiel Hasu and the Guests who reviewed since my last update.  
Thank you guys; it really is a lot easier to stay inspired when I know I've got readers waiting and excited for the next chapter.**


	35. Benched

**XXXV**

" _What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal." - Albert Pike_

* * *

•••

With a yawn Bird stepped from the carpeted hallway onto the tile kitchen floor, the cold under her bare-feet startled her a bit more awake than she already was.

Silently she wished all the tile floors in her house were heated like the one in the master bathroom.

She'd just made it over to the counter where she was planning on starting a pot of coffee; that was until she caught sight of something, rather someone, outside through the window.

"Bruce?" Bird's voice came out a little raspy as she spotted her little brother pacing back and forth on the walkway outside.

Tying the robe closed over the matching nightie underneath, she made her way over to the front door and opened it enough to poke her head outside into the cold brisk morning air to call out to him.

"I'm sorry." Bruce apologized as he got closer and saw she appeared to have just gotten out of bed, "Did I wake you up? I -I can't come back later."

"By wearing down the sidewalk outside?" Her brows raised, stepping to the side she gave him enough room to slip inside the townhouse before quickly shutting the door to keep the cold air out, "No. I just came downstairs to make some coffee…"

Her voice trailed off when she realized he wasn't wearing his usual style of clothes, instead he'd opted for something much less formal -complete with a dark blue knit hat.

"Where have you been?" She questioned, pushing aside the unruly morning hair that had fell over her eyes and face, "Where's Alfred."

"I left really early this morning before he woke up." Bruce admitted to her.

"You mean you snuck out?" She corrected.

His guilty gaze fell to the floor just before he caught sight of his own hands and the unnaturally white shade his skin had turned to from being out in the cold for long.  
He wasn't even sure how long he'd been pacing around outside of his sister's house.

Early that morning he was supposed to meet back up with Selina, only instead of finding his friend at their meeting spot, he'd ran into Ivy Pepper.

No one else knew, but Bruce had asked Selina to help him break into Arkham Alyssum a few days prior and she hadn't been seen since.

When he raised his head and his eyes met Bird's her heart dropped into her stomach at the realization that something was very wrong.

Any drowsiness she'd been feeling since waking up vanished and she demanded to know, "What happened?"

"It's Selina." Bruce said, reaching up to pull the hat off of his head as the room started to feel too warm.

"Come on." Her voice softened.  
She draped an arm over him to lead him into the living room and guided him over to one of the chairs.

Taking a seat across from him, she said, "Tell me everything."

And so he did.  
He started from the beginning of how frustrated and even angry he'd been when Bullock had told them without proof of any wrong doing the GCPD's hands were tied when it came to Hugo Strange.

So Bruce had been set on uncovering such evidence himself.

Only when he'd asked for Selina's help, she insisted she break into the asylum on her own, to which he'd immediately protested, until she gave her reasoning behind it.

If they caught her they'd toss her back out, thinking she was just another street kid finding their way into places they shouldn't.  
But if they caught Bruce, he'd probably be killed since Strange knew they were onto him.

Only now he felt like the worst decision he'd ever made was involving her in this; something Alfred had expressly told him not to do.  
He'd been warned of the danger it could put her in, but he thought they had a shot at bringing down the man who was ultimately behind their parent's murders and he'd had a tunnel vision set on just that.

"What if she's…" His voice trailed off.  
Rubbing his hands over his face and hanging his head, he tried to force the words out, "If she's…"

"Dead?" Bird filled in the blank for him, before clearing her throat, "You can't think like that right now."

"It's all my fault." His vision started to blur, a lump grew in his throat.  
He'd already lost so much in his life, he couldn't lose Selina too.

Especially not over something he'd asked her to get involved in.

How he wished for a time machine; a second chance to relieve the day he'd sought her out for this.

"I don't know what to do." His voice shook; unsteady from emotion.

"We get her back." Bird answered with such a simple statement it hardly seemed fitting for the dire circumstances they were currently sitting in, "And we bring Strange down."

Bruce's mouth hung open, still fighting to keep the tears in that were threatening to spill out.  
It was an answer he'd known himself, but one he had no idea how to even begin to accomplish.

Jim stepped off the last step and paused as he rubbed his tired eyes and debated which room to check and see where Bird was.

When he noticed the air lacked the scent of fresh coffee, he turned to head into the front sitting room instead.

As he neared the doorway, he caught sight of her sitting on the arm of on the one of the chairs.

"There you are." He said as he entered the room, giving her a sleepy smile and reaching up to run a hand over his head and started to ask, "You want me to start the coffee-"

It was then that he caught sight of Bruce as the teenager scrambled to his feet from a chair facing Bird and to turned to face him.

"Bruce…" Jim greeted, eyebrows raised in surprise.

"Detective Gordon." Bruce quickly returned.  
His eyes bounced between where the detective stood with a stunned surprised expression and then over to where his sister had also stood from where she'd been sitting.

"You've gotta stop calling me detective." Jim said with a small sigh.  
It was tough enough not thinking of himself that way; even worse when other people kept referring to him by the title no longer befitting his name.

Bruce glanced back over to Bird, who was still in what she'd slept in, now covered with a matching robe.  
Her face shown only the slightest left over remnants of make-up from the day before and her thick brunette hair clearly hadn't even been brushed that morning.

With another look over at Jim who was wearing a pair of boxers and white undershirt and appeared to have just rolled out of bed himself, Bruce's eyes widened a little and he apologized, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to intrude. I didn't realize you were here…"

The room fell into an awkward silence, before he cleared his throat and added, "I guess this is going to take a little getting used to-"

"Yeah." Jim agreed before Bruce had even finished his sentence.  
He threw out a smile that both felt and looked as awkward as the silence had felt.

"Okay…" Bird breathed, rubbing her hands over her face, "I'm going-"

Clearing her throat, she corrected, "We're going to get dressed. Bruce, you need to call Alfred and let him know you're here and we'll be bringing you home soon, okay?"

"Okay." Bruce agreed.

"What's wrong?" Jim questioned, finally moving past the awkwardness of the situation to see the upset look on Bruce's face.

Bird was going to tell him she'd fill him in on the way to Wayne Manor, but before she could Bruce admitted, "I asked Selina Kyle to break into Arkham and help gather evidence against Hugo Strange and now she's missing."

The boy who could barely bring himself to admit the truth just minutes before now was spilling it out for everyone to hear.  
The guilt was already swallowing him whole.

"You what?" Jim's voice came out a little gruffer than he'd meant for it too.

"Come on." Bird said as she crossed the room and grabbed onto Jim's hand to lead him away.  
Looking over her shoulder as they left the room she repeated to her brother, "Call Alfred."

Once they'd made it upstairs, Bird shut the bedroom doors and leaned against them, her head falling back with a thud against the wood.

"I can't believe he did that." Jim's voice was hushed as he stopped in the center of the room and turned back around to see where Bird had stopped.

"I imagine from his point of view it must have looked like no one else was doing anything." Bird quietly answered.

"Bullock's been trying to get a warrant to search the asylum from top to bottom-" He began.

"It's not good enough." Bird shrugged.  
It had taken every ounce of strength she possessed to try and let the GCPD do it's work and handle this legally.

Something she was only doing for Bruce to begin with and here he'd went and endangered the life of possibly his one and only friend.

With a heavy sigh, Jim shook his head.  
He could understand the youngest Wayne's frustration with how slow the process was moving, but that was no excuse to ask Selina to risk her life and break the law.

A part of him was surprised she'd even agreed to it.

Opening up on of the closet doors, he'd started to grab clothes to change into for the day but stopped when he heard another small thud and looked over to see Bird with her head back against the doors again.

"What if she's dead, Jim?"

It was that very line of thought that she'd insisted Bruce not go to, but it was a very real possibility at this point.

"She's not." Jim came shy of promising.  
Walking back over to her he pointed out, "Selina's gotten herself out of more than one mess before."

"I know." Bird's eyes met his, "I know she's smart and resourceful, but we don't know what's going on in the building. Galavan's dead body went in and Azrael came back out. And if she's dead… if she got killed for helping Bruce than he's never going to forgive himself."

Stepping forward, he slid his arms around her, holding her against him.

"We'll figure this out." He said.

Bird leaned against him, holding onto him with her good arm as she was barely able to get the other shoulder to move.

When the doctor she'd seen had given her a shot to numb the pain, he'd warned her this was a one time thing, that the after effects could be swelling inside the joints -further impeding her already limited range of movement.

"You know what happens now, right?" Bird questioned, moving her head back enough to look at him, "We're going to have take care of Strange… off the books, no GCPD."

"No." Jim argued, his eyes meeting hers.  
This was what she'd wanted to do all along and was now using Selina's life as an excuse to get her way.

"What happens now is we get dressed, go to Wayne Manor and figure out a plan." He said, leaning in to press a kiss to her lips, before pulling back just enough to say, "And you have to wear that sling for your arm.

"I'm fine-" She tried to lie, but he was ready with his argument, "You can't even move your arm."

•••

"How could you do this, Master Bruce?" Alfred demanded to know as he stared at him, "I strictly forbid you from involving that little girl, didn't I?"

"I know." Bruce nodded, his eyes cutting over to the couch where Lucius Fox was seated with Jim standing behind the couch.  
He then glanced over to where his sister was standing.

"Selina's always handled herself… I, I was sure-" He continued to try and explain the reasoning behind his actions, but Alfred wasn't listening.

"Well, you were wrong, weren't you?" Alfred continued to lay into him, "It's different if you choose to be involved in something like this, but you actively involved Selina Kyle. You put your own concerns in front of that girl's safety."

"I…" Alfred pulled in a breath, his knuckles turning white as he held onto the cane he'd been having to use since the injuries he'd endured the night he fought Azrael, "I am really disappointed in you, Master Bruce."

Bruce swallowed hard.  
He always hated that term; hated knowing he'd let someone down.

Anger was an easier emotion to handle, if someone was angry with him that it would in time pass.

But this was different.  
Letting someone, especially the ones he cared about down, left him feeling like there was a ripped open space in his chest where his heart should be.

"Yeah." Bird nodded, "Look, I'm disappointed too, but right now the main concern is getting Selina out of there and dealing with Strange, right?"

Anguish was eating away at her little brother and even if it was well deserved, she didn't see how lecturing him in front of Jim and Lucius was going to accomplish anything other than embarrassing him even further.

"First off." Jim nodded, "Are you absolutely sure that Selina is still in Arkham?"

"Yes…" Bruce stammered, "She wouldn't have missed our meeting otherwise, Strange must be holding her a prisoner."

"Only I doubt she's in Arkham." Lucius interrupted, "He's probably holding her in the secret lab where he created Azrael."

"But Strange runs Arkham; he's seen there everyday." Jim started and Bird practically stole the words from his mouth when she closed, "The entrance to the lab has to be in Arkham then."

"You're thinking it's underground?" Lucius looked between them.

"It has to be." Jim asserted, "There has to be stairs, maybe an elevator… Ventilation shafts. I just don't know how to find them."

"I may have a solution." Lucius offered, "The technology Strange is using to create these monsters must be very advanced. My guess is he's using plutonium isotopes to mutate cell structure."

"Sure…" Bird breathed, thinking he might as well have been speaking a foreign language, "Sounds believable to me."

With a smile Lucius explained, "Which means there will be trace radiation; and at Wayne Enterprises I developed a miniature geiger counter for battlefield use. Get me into Arkham and I'll find the entrance to that lab."

Bird's expression twisted up even further.  
She had a more simple plan in mind, albeit bloodier than anyone else would approve of, but a plan still.

She could make some phone calls, bring in the right people for the job and they'd either bring Hugo Strange to them or burn Arkham to the ground trying, but before she got to pitch the idea, her brother had one of his own.

"The Wayne Foundation gives the asylum money every year. I can ask for a tour." Bruce suggested to Alfred's dismay.

"From the man who ordered the assassination of your father?" Alfred said.

"No way." Bird stepped forward, "This is how we'd get ourselves killed -strolling up into Arkham, right into enemy territory."

"Only we wouldn't all be strolling in, now would we, Lady Wayne?" Alfred pointed out, "Me with this leg and you with your arm you need surgery on."

"Strange will want to find out what we know." Bruce reasoned, "And he won't see Mr. Fox and I as threats."

"Absolutely not." Alfred figuratively and literally put his foot down.

"Alfred, you said yourself that it's my fault what happened to Selina. That means it's my responsibility to make it right." Bruce stood his ground.

"And I may not be the man you'd choose as second in a street fight, but anything I can do to protect Bruce, I will." Lucius vowed as he walked and over and stood next to him.

Bird's mouth hung open as she looked between Bruce and Lucius.

Though her father's once associate was someone who'd earned her approval and trust quicker than most, that didn't mean she was ready to put her brother's life and well-being solely in his hands.

Clearly sharing her thought process, Alfred argued, "Still it's only half a plan, isn't it? Say Lucius can get you in there and you find the entrance to the laboratory, then what?"

"Exactly!" Bird exclaimed.  
She was beginning to feel like she, Alfred and Jim were the only ones with any sense left in the room.

That was until Jim opened his mouth  
"Then they tell me. I call Bullock, he'll come busting in with a hundred cops and keep Strange busy while I find Selina."

"Oh, I see!" Alfred's voice was airy, the expression on his face revealed just how utterly absurd he believed this all to be, "These two, yeah possibly… but how will you get in. Bet Strange won't let you within a bloody mile of the place."

Jim's expression fell.  
It wasn't a perfect plan, but the bits and pieces seemed to be coming together and it was more than they'd had yesterday.

"If I can get you in the gates, can you manage the rest of the way?" Lucius questioned.

"Yeah." Jim nodded confidently, "I think I can."

"Right." Bird scoffed, "Smuggle him in through the gates? How? In the trunk of you car?"

"Well, yes." Lucius admitted, "That was my first thought."

"Oh my god…" Bird breathed, "Am I the only one who sees nothing but flaws with this?"

"No, you most certainly are not, Lady Wayne." Alfred agreed, "There is at least a thousand ways in which this half-baked scheme could end badly."

"Only a thousand?" She added in a voice just above a whisper.

"It's not perfect." Bruce stepped forward in agreement one that end, "But it's all we've got."

Looking at his sister he continued, "You told me not to think that it was too late to save Selina, and that's what I'm doing. If she's alive then I have to do everything I can to get her out of harms way." Their eyes met and he added, "You know I'm right."

He didn't say the rest of this thought process out loud, but he wondered how this was any different from her willingness to always run right to danger and take risk after risk to help save him.  
How this was any different than when she literally took a bullet for Oswald and came far too close to paying the ultimate price.

Now it was his turn, his friend in danger and his cross to bear and his turn to take the venture.  
It couldn't be anyone else.

"I don't like this." Bird's tone had softened, but her protests against the plan hadn't.

"I know." Bruce nodded, his eyes moving from her face over to Alfred's, "But there is no other way."

"Then I'm coming too." Bird stated.

"Excuse me, Bird… if I may-" Lucius began, "Not only might your presence set off alarm bells, but if push comes to shove -you are one limb down."

Her dark eyes narrowed at him, "I could fight circles around you with this arm tied behind my back!"

"I don't doubt it." Lucius gave a single nod, "But still."

"You signed over your shares of the company." Jim reminded her as he walked around from where he'd still been standing behind the couch, "It would look odd for you to be there."

When the room fell into an extended state of silence, Lucius announced that he was going to retrieve the geiger counter and would return shortly.  
Followed by Jim who left to retrieve his old uniform from his days of working security at Arkham.

Once Bird, Alfred and Bruce were left alone, Alfred sat down on the couch and stared silently in front of him.

"I can do this." Bruce promised, knowing they each had countless reservations of letting him go through with the plan.

"Can you?" Bird echoed, "This is the man who put the hit out on mom and dad."

"I know-"

"So how do you expect to go and look him in the eyes, pretending that you're there on nothing more than company business?"

"Because I have to." Bruce looked over to the flames in the large fireplace and repeated like a mantra, "I can do this."

"You barely held it together the night you went after Matches Malone." Bird brought up the night that was still very clear in her mind.

Bruce had stuttered and stammered his way through the conversation, his emotions had been all over the place and Malone had known something was up from the minute he let them inside.

"Selina's life depends on this." Bruce argued, "I don't have a choice."

"Course you've got a choice." Alfred interrupted, pulling himself back to his feet, "In the same way that I can let you choose to go with my blessing and tell you to bring that little girl home safe or I can tell you right now I can stick you on an airplane and fly you somewhere very far away…"

"You can't." Bruce's forehead lined.

"Don't be such a donker, course I can." Alfred pointed out he was Bruce's legal guardian, "But I won't."

"You sure?" Bird asked, moving in closer to where the pair stood, "I'm sort of liking this plane idea. In fact, let's bring Jim with us before he gets himself hurt or killed."

"I'm sure." Alfred nodded, "See, for two years Master Bruce all I've tried to do is protect and keep you safe, thinking that -that's what your father would have wanted. But I think I'm just now starting to see that you're not the same boy he left behind, are you?"

When Bruce stared back at him with an unsure expression, Alfred looked to Bird, "You saw it first, Lady Wayne. The night he set off after Malone, yeah? Could have dragged him away kicking and screaming, but you saw just how much he'd changed and you let him make his own decision… why?"

"Because I saw so much of dad in him." She admitted, glancing over to where Bruce stood.

"Yes." Alfred nodded with his vision growing blurred from tears, "So standing here now I must ask myself what would Thomas Wayne do?"

When the siblings stayed silent, he cleared his throat in an attempt to make the words come out clearer, "Your father took responsibility for his actions. He fought very hard for what he believed in."

Looking between them, Alfred couldn't help but chuckle, "Something you both inherited in your own, quite different, ways."

"Point is." He continued, "I won't stand in your way of doing the same thing, Master Bruce. So off you go. Mr. Fox and Detective Gordon will be waiting for you soon."

Bruce looked between both Alfred and Bird with tears in his eyes.  
Swallowing hard, he gave another glance to them both before leaving the room to gather his coat and meet Lucius outside.

Once he was out of sight, Bird continued to stare at the now empty doorway and questioned, "You sure you don't like the plane idea better?"

"Oh, I most certainly do." He admitted, offering up a smile in-spite of being so worried it felt like his insides had all turned to mush, "I've already let Gordon know that if I don't hear anything within the hour I'm going straight to Bullock myself."

It was a little while later, after she'd heard a car pull up that Bird went outside. She saw Lucius and her brother talking near the door of the house and Jim standing by the car, dressed in his old uniform.

"I know you're worried about Bruce." Jim began when she walked up to him with an unreadable expression on her face, "But I'm going to be right there. I promise I won't let anything happen to him."

Shaking her head, Bird looked up to the bright yet overcast sky and bit down on the side of her tongue for a moment before she trusted herself to speak, "You've got to stop making those types of promises, Jim."

He meant what he said, she knew that, but she also knew those were the sorts of things you never promise anyone.  
Just like how he'd promised to find their parents killer over two years ago and how just a short time ago Bruce promised Karen Jennings that no harm would come to her if she helped them.

Reaching out, his hand found hers and he waited until she looked back at him before elaborating, "I'm going to do everything I can."

"I know." She gave a small, nearly weak nod, "But that doesn't make me feel better. Maybe it should… I… I don't know, but it doesn't."

"I'm too worried about something happening to Bruce." She continued, "Worried that you're going to be found out and something's going to happen to you and that for as smart as Lucius is that he could walk right into a trap without even knowing because he's far more book-smart than street. I'm worried this all too late to save Selina anyways… I'm just-"

"Worried?" Jim cut her off, "Yeah, I gathered that."

When she shot him a look, he did his best to smile for her benefit -though in truth he wasn't sure how well the day was going to pan out for them either, but they had to try.

He glanced over to where Lucius and Bruce were still talking, before he leaned in and kissed her, pulling back with the promise, "I'll call you the second I know something."

Nodding, she couldn't muster the strength it took to smile back at him.  
Instead she watched, staring with an almost blank expression as he climbed into the trunk of Lucius' car and tucked himself as far as he could fit to stay out of sight.

She couldn't even find it in her to make a joke about how she always expected if he ended up in a trunk of a car it would be unconscious and not a willing decision.

Leaning into the still open trunk, she pressed her mouth to his one last time before standing back up and saying, "Be careful, Jim."

With that she pulled her eyes away from him and put the piece of carpeting back in place over the section he was squared away in and shut the trunk.

The next few minutes passed in a blur, a quick hug from her brother and Lucius trying again to ease her mind that he'd do everything in his power to keep her brother safe.

Glazed over minutes that finally faded into nothing as she watched the car disappear down the drive while she stood in place by the front door.

The truth was that Bird didn't know if her tagging along would have swayed their fate one way or the other, but it sure as hell would have felt better than standing there useless while they set out to risk their lives.

Maybe that's why she'd never been able to fully see herself stepping into Falcone's shoes, even back in her days of working for Fish Mooney and plotting with Oswald to take over the city.

She didn't want to be the one standing at a safe distance giving orders and watching everyone else flank out to cover ground.  
No, she'd rather be down in the trenches with the fighters.

"Lady Wayne!"

Bird glanced over her shoulder to where Alfred's voice rang out from the inside of the house through the wide open front door.

Turning she walked back inside of the house and shut the door behind her, still finding it impossible to accept that she was going to sit around and drink tea with Alfred while nearly everyone else important to her was walking straight into the lion's den.

•••

Adjusting her jacket, Bird pulled in a deep breath and reached for the door to Arkham Asylum.

It was a little while ago, right around the time Alfred started pacing back and forth with his cane still in hand, saying they were down to mere minutes before he was going to go marching into GCPD and demand Bullock rally the troops, that Bird had said she was going to put another kettle on for tea.

Which she did; just before slipping out of the house and leaving without telling Alfred.

She'd sat there idly for far too long.  
Another five minutes of that she was sure she'd grow mad enough to be locked back up in the asylum.

"Can I help you?" The security guard at the desk asked as Bird proceeded forward towards him.

"Yes, Hi!" She did her best to pin a smile on her lips, "My name is Starling Wayne. My brother and an associate from Wayne Enterprises came here about an hour ago and now I can't seem to reach either one of them. I was hoping-"

"Yeah, hang on." He rather rudely replied as he picked up the phone on the desk to call and let Professor Strange know she was there.

Bird held her breath and bit down on her tongue while she looked around.  
Her brother and Jim being in danger were about the only earthly things strong enough to pull her back into this hellhole.

The place she'd been locked in for months of her life for something she didn't even do.  
Forced to live in sub-par conditions, being treated as far less than human.

It was a time in her life she never wanted to revisit -and yet here she stood.

During her time in Arkham, she'd thought about escape many times, even having plotted it out once or twice.  
In the end she'd opted to stay, knowing that she needed to wait until her name was cleared or the freedom of escape wouldn't be freedom at all.

But that had left her with several ideas on how to get out of the building unseen; meaning the opposite would have worked as a way to get in just the same.

That was her original plan; breaking into Arkham rather than using the front gate, but during the drive over she'd changed her mind.

Maybe one part of her brother's scheme was smarter than she'd bought into at the time. To just walking in like they had every right to be there.

Back in her days of working under Fish, when the older woman would get angry with her and start hurling insults, she'd often say that Bird was a nobody -just a girl with a name heavier than she knew how to carry.

She didn't fully understand at the time and was usually so enraged herself that she never took what was being said to heart, but now she could see her former boss and mentor had a point.

The Wayne name alone opened so many doors and the most she'd really used it for was getting out of speeding tickets when she was a teenager.

So now here she was, using both her name and the position she held within the company to push her way into Arkham.

"Miss Wayne."

Looking up, Bird saw the older black woman in a white lab coat who'd came to greet her.  
Though Bird couldn't seem to pull her eyes away from the woman's purple lipstick that looked more like a color of craft paint.

"Yes?" Bird cleared her throat.

"I'm Ethel Peabody." She introduced herself, "Professor Strange will see you now."

"Uh." Bird stammered, briskly walking to keep up with her, "I want to see my brother."

"In time." Ms. Peabody promised as she led them into an empty hallway, "Wait here."

Bird looked around as Strange's assistant disappeared into one of the offices at the end of the small, wide hallway.

Hearing foot steps, Bird spun around thinking someone was trying to sneak up on her, but the anxiousness instantly melted away into ease when she saw it was Jim, still dressed in his Arkham uniform.

"Jim!" Bird exclaimed, rushing over to him, "Thank god. I was so worried-"

She stopped, caught off guard by the way he was looking at her -as if he'd never been more confused by anything or anyone in his entire life.

"I know I'm not supposed to be here, but I just couldn't sit there any longer." She explained, her hands landing gently against his chest as she stepped as close as she could to him and questioned, "Where's Bruce?"

Jim looked down to her hands and how close she was standing, then as if a light-bulb went off in his head he said, "Bird!"

"What?" She questioned, turning back to face him after she'd been looking over her shoulder to make sure Ms. Peabody wasn't back from the office yet.

"I mean, uh, hey." He cleared his throat and deepened his voice, "Hey."

"Tell ya what, sweet cheeks." He winked in a way that the entire side of his face seemed to wrinkle up, "I'll find the kid, you uh, you just stay right here."

Slowly sliding her hands from his uniform, Bird took a step back.

The thing in front of her looked like Jim, nearly had his voice down but that was where the resemblance ended.

It's facial expressions were all wrong, the smile was off along with all his mannerisms.

And never, in over two years of knowing him had he ever referred to her by sweet cheeks or anything of the life.

It might have walked and talked like Jim, but it wasn't him.

"What are you?" Bird's voice was a whisper-yell as she angrily demanded to know, "Where's Jim? What did you do to him?"

"I'm right here!" He tried to stick to the script, but Bird's horrified expression deepened as she watched the Jim-lookalike trying his best to smile, but it was if he barely had control over his facial ticks.

She backed further away from him, completely unaware she was backing right up into a handful of guards.

Within seconds their hands were all over her, grabbing onto both her fully working and injured arms.

"No!" She shrieked, but her voice blended into the screams of hundreds of Arkham inmates.

Kicking frantically and she tried to get away from them but she was outnumbered and it didn't take much effort on their part to drag her into one of them rooms and slam the door shut.

All while the Jim-lookalike stood in place watching until she was gone.

After which, Ms. Peabody came back into view and pointed him towards the front exit, "Best get moving, Basil. The police are en-route as we speak."

•••

* * *

 **A/N - Ahh! Thank you all for reading, I really hope you liked the chapter!**  
 **Which also happens to be the second to last chapter of Wasteland.**

 **That's right! The next one, chapter 36 will be the last.**  
 **But no need to worry!**  
 **Bird's story isn't ending there.**

 **I'll be posting another story that will cover season 3 soon under the title Devil's Playground!**

 **Also want to take minute and say thank you to:** **xenocanaan, Shadow knight1121, movielover251, Love. Fiction. 2018, SmellYourScentForMiles, AGBreads, Havana, xxXWolfLullabyXxx, Munyue, ThatMysteriousSlime and the Guests who reviewed the last chapter!  
**

 **It's so amazing to know that nearing the end of the second story in this series I've still got readers who are looking forward to reading more about Bird. ^_^**


	36. The Pretty Lies, The Ugly Truth

**XXXVI**

" _Night falls. Or has fallen. Why is it that night falls, instead of rising, like the dawn? Yet if you look east, at sunset, you can see night rising, not falling; darkness lifting into the sky, up from the horizon, like a black sun behind cloud cover. Like smoke from an unseen fire, a line of fire just below the horizon, brushfire or a burning city. Maybe night falls because it's heavy, a thick curtain pulled up over the eyes. Wool blanket."- Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale_

* * *

•••

Bird managed to get away from the group of Arkham Guards who'd been trying to drag her further into the building.

With a blow from the elbow on her good arm, Bird nearly knocked the one who had a hold on her down and his grip on her faltered enough she was able to pull free.

Taking off in a full sprint, she ran as far away as she could with the sounds of their footsteps chasing after her.

She was briefly reminded of a show she caught on television once where a pack of fifteen gray wolves brought a bison that weighed over nine-hundred pounds.

As she rounded a corner to a seemingly dead end, she flattened her back against the wall, breathing heavily.

There was no way out.

She was trapped now, easy prey.

Using her ability to think fast in dire situations, she realized her only chance at getting free might be if they underestimated her.

Moving as fast as she could and causing herself great pain the process, she moved the sling to her other side and got her good arm placed in it just as the guards found her.

"I give up!" Bird shouted at them, hoping they wouldn't start roughly trying to pull her around by the arm with the badly injured shoulder, she highly doubted she could keep her scream in then, "You boys got me. I'm trapped."

With that she held up her bad arm as best she could in a sign of surrender, "I give up."

They seemed wary at first, but when they grabbed onto her and she really didn't try to fight back they led her to another hallway and down an elevator at the end.

Saving her strength and trying to bide her time, Bird didn't put up much of a protest when they dragged her over to a chair bolted to the floor of the room and started to strap her in.

It took every last shred of strength left in her to not cry or scream out when they grabbed onto her injured arm and forced it down until her wrist went into the restraint cuff.

An act done rather roughly when they thought she was trying to be stubborn all over again; what they didn't know was that she could barely move that arm at all.

When one of the guards started to pull her arm out of the sling to tie her the rest of the way down, Bird yelled out, "No, no, no. I'm not supposed to take the sling off. I have a separated shoulder! I'm probably going to need surgery!"

"Oh, dear…" Hugo Strange bellowed as he walked in the room just in time to see her panicking and hearing her argument, "That's doesn't sound good at all."

"I can't…" Bird whined, still acting as though the arm in the sling was her injured one, "Please, I can't even move my arm. I can't-"  
She cried out in a hiss of pain when they tried again to jerk the sling off her arm.

"That'll do." Strange said to the guards, completely buying into the act she was putting on.

Once they were alone, he crossed the room and stood over in front of her as he looked her over.

For Bird and Bruce to have not been actual biological siblings, they did bear a strong psychical appearance.

"I can't tell what it means to finally meet you." Strange said with a surprisingly earnest expression, "You father meant a great deal to me."

Pausing for a moment, he then added, "Bruce reminds me of him very much."

"Where is my brother?" Bird demanded to know.

"Alive." Strange admitted, "Answering some questions -as you will do too."

"Us?" She nearly laughed, "My father was your friend and you hired someone to kill him and my mom -yet you think we're the ones who need to answer questions?"

"Yes." He nodded, taking longer than the average person to say each word, "I suppose you do have some questions."

"What was that thing in the hallway?" Bird jumped right in, "Where's Jim?"

"Yes, Ms. Peabody told me you had a surprise run in with Basil. What a shock that must have been." He empathized before curiosity got the best of him and he had to know, "How were you able to figure out he wasn't the real James Gordon so fast?"

"Because I know Jim and that thing wasn't him." She insisted.

"Fair enough." He chuckled, "But I'm sure he'll do the job just fine."

Bird's forehead lined and she had to give a bit of thought to what he meant, then remembering Ms. Peabody mentioning GPCD, Bird asked, "You think that's going to work? You think that Bullock or someone else at the station will buy into that act too."

"Oh, Miss Wayne, indeed I do." He let out a low chuckle as he stood to his feet and started to walk behind her and over to a small tray set up with a vile of medicine and a syringe.

Bird was too busy looking around the room and trying to hatch an escape plan to realize what he was doing, until she felt the needle go into the side of her neck.

"What -what was that?" She questioned as the effects were nearly instantaneous

Her head started to feel too heavy for her neck and her vision was foggy around the edges.

"A simple honesty serum." Strange answered while capping the needle and dropping it back onto the tray.

Turning his attention back to her, he placed a hand on her shoulder and questioned, "How are you feeling?"

Bird was quiet at first, for so long he almost repeated the question, but finally she answered, "Tired."

"Hmm." He hummed, "Yes. It's believed that it takes more brain activity to produce a lie than to spill a truth."

The medicine she'd been given was made to produce a groggy state, to slow brain function so the person wouldn't be able to come up with a lie.

"Answer this time quickly." He instructed, "Don't think about the answer too long; say the first thing that comes to mind."

Walking around to face her he asked, "How are you feeling? Not on the outside, but the inside."

"Exhausted."

His head cocked to the side.  
It was then that he realized she didn't simply mean she was psychically tired, she was answering truthfully.

"Heavy." Bird continued even when she wasn't prompted, "Too much for my own skin."

Her eyes closed and head drooped forward with slow but steady breathing.

"Something is weighing heavily on you." Strange realized.

The point of the truth serum was to find out what she did or didn't know of his benefactors; a clandestine organization who were really pulling the strings; as if Gotham were marionette puppet.

But this was just as fascinating to him; there was nothing quite like broad spectrum of human nature.

It was just mere minutes before that he'd finished interrogating Jim, who didn't know anything useful when it came to the organization, but was still an interesting conversation all the same.

Strange had learned that Jim was overrun with guilt. It seemed as though everything bad that had happened in his life he felt he deserved in one way or another.  
He was closer to his mother because he resented his father's strength.

The man who most everyone viewed as a hero, deep down, never felt like he was good enough.

"What is it?" Strange questioned, reminding Bird not to fight the effects of the medicine again, "What is weighing so heavily on you?"

"A secret." Bird admitted with her eyes still pinned shut.

"There is a way to rid yourself of that weight." He pointed out, "The truth will set you free."

"No." Bird swallowed, opening her eyes and finding her vision worse than before.  
She tried to look around the room, but it felt like it was taking so long to even get her eyes to move, let alone comprehend anything she could see.

"No?" He repeated back.

"Freedom…" She breathed, "Costs so much."

"You're right." He observed, clearly both taken aback and further intrigued at her thoughts, "It's never something that comes without a price, is it?"

Crossing his arms over his chest he looked around the room, giving the medicine a little more time to knock her defenses down before asking, "What would this truth cost you?"

"Him." She answered, "Jim…"

"Interesting." Strange voiced, "Interesting that you sit here afraid of losing him, while he credits you with most of the good currently in his life."

"He does?" Her head raised, but her eyes still had trouble focusing.

"He told me so." Strange answered.

"That's why he can't know." She reiterated, "Then he'd know what she's always known… that I'm poison."

"She, who?"

"Lilith."

"Your biological mother?" Strange pushed.

"Yes." Bird answered, "She must have known."

"Known what?"

"That I'd be the death of her."

Pulling in a deep breath, Bird didn't plan on saying anything else but she found herself unable to stop, "Falcone told me once that she tried to kill herself while she was pregnant with me. He said she was mentally ill, but I think she knew…"

"Go on." He instructed.

"That it wasn't a baby growing inside of her, that it was an infection and one day it would kill her and I did." She finished as a single tear left a trail down her cheek and she stared blankly straight ahead of her.

"You killed your mother?" Strange verified.

"She wasn't going to stop coming after the family fortune. She was going to use Bruce if she had to. I had to stop her. I -I had to." Pinning her eyes shut again, Bird resumed the fight against the medication.

"You're holding something back." He stepped closer, "Relax. There's no one else here but us. Tell me why you're saying you had to kill her."

"She…" Bird's breathing started to labor, "She disappointed me. She hurt me -and I wanted her dead."

"Oh, my…" Strange breathed with an amused laugh, "What a terrible burden to be carrying around all this time."

He wasn't sure what information he'd get out of her after dosing her with truth serum, but this was far better than he'd have bargained for.

Even more riveting was how she was seemed to feel little to no guilt over the murder itself and seemed more concerned with what the truth coming out would cost her.

"I need to you to relax." Strange said as he walked back around to behind the chair and placed a hand on her shoulder again, "I'm going to help you. Here, close your eyes. Now, imagine that I am all-powerful, that I am God. And I absolve you of all your pain and your guilt. You are not poison… you are human and all you've done can be forgiven."

Applying more pressure with his hand, weighing her down further he continued, "I am God. I put all of that worry and suffering on you and I can take it away."  
With that he relieved the pressure and removed his hand from her shoulder all together, "It's gone. All of your burdens are gone."

Bird's eyes opened and she pulled in a gasp of air.

"So, how do you feel?" Strange questioned as he walked back into her line of sight.

"Lighter." She answered with a sleepy smile, "Better."

"Good!" Strange exclaimed with a smile of his own, "Good."

"Miss Wayne-"

"Bird." She corrected, the smile falling some from her lips, "I want to be called Bird."

"Very well!" He clapped his hands together and took a seat in the chair facing hers, "Bird, now you're relaxed and speaking open and honestly. Tell me, what do you know about my work here at Indian Hill?"

"You're bringing people back from the dead." She answered, "You brought Galavan back."

"His reanimation didn't go entirely as planned, but a miracle is still a miracle." He nodded, "But we're doing far more than that."

"You're creating monsters." Bird answered.

"More still." He smiled, "For who?"

"Who?" She didn't seem understand the question.

"Who owns Indian Hill?"

"My family's company." Bird's eyes nearly lit up at seeming to know the answer, "Wayne Enterprises."

"Yes and who controls Wayne Enterprises?" Strange asked, "Behind the scenes. From the shadows one might say."

Strange got to his feet and stood back up, waiting with bated breath for her answer.

"The board of directors." She answered.

With his eyes narrowing inquisitively he clarified, "No, who controls everything in Gotham. Behind the scenes."

"I don't know." Bird admitted.

"Who controls Gotham, Bird?" He continued to push, "Falcone never said anything?"

"No. I don't know."

Leaning down some to get more on her eye level where she was seated, Strange asked, "You've never heard of a… secret council?"

"No." Bird answered.

"Excellent!" He exclaimed, "Excellent. Thank you. That is what I needed to know."

He started for the door, pausing just before opening it and turning back to look at her once last time to see her head was hung again.

"What is it?" He questioned.

"Do you…" She started to ask, "Do you think I should tell Jim? Do you think he'll understand?"

"Understand? Hmm." Strange hummed, "I'm can't say. But love, Bird. Love is our guide. That is why you feel so much guilt for lying to him and why I can't speak for his understanding on the matter of matricide, love is why I'm confident he'd live with it -for you."

"Because he loves me?" Bird questioned, her eyes widened as if this were the first time she'd truly considered it.

With a single, but decisive nod, Strange started to leave again, but Bird stopped him with another question, "Then why I can't tell him what I've done?"

"That's the problem with secrets, Bird." He explained, "They become monsters of your own making. Where fear of retribution often times becomes worse than the act itself."

"I should have told him to begin with?"

"Oh, most definitely." Strange nodded just before a empathetic look took over his features and he said, "It's a shame you'll never get the chance. You've been so honest with me that I feel in the spirit of intimacy and honesty that I should tell you -that you've only got a short time left to live. Maybe just hours."

With that he finally the left room, leaving a more broken Bird behind than the one who'd walked into Arkham of her own free will.

Still drowsy and hazy from the medicine, it took Bird a good ten or more minutes after Strange had left to remember she'd switched the sling over to her good arm before being dragged off.

Wiggling her arm free, she got to work with her clumsy fingers trying to undo the buckle on the wrist restraint for her bad arm.  
Once it was free, she gingerly tried to get it back into the sling even though the shock-waves of pain were radiating from her shoulder all the way down into her legs.

It was a struggle, but she also managed to get her legs free from their restraints and then made the mistake of quickly trying to get to her feet, which only resulted in her immediately falling onto the floor.

With a groan and a scream of determination, she managed to grab onto the chair she'd been sitting in and pull herself back up to her feet.

She felt like she'd just came off a dizzying carnival ride, unable to hold her balance for more than a step at a time as she stumbled her way over to a metal cart against the side wall and started jerking open the drawers to find something she could use as a weapon.

Finally, she clutched onto ridged metal handle of a scalpel and made a break for the door.

There weren't handrails in the hallway and her dizzied attempt at walking involved a lot of stumbling about and dropping the scalpel several times, only to nearly fall flat on her face when she tried to lean down to pick it back up.

She was unable to correctly calculate how long or far she'd been walking, but it felt like ages until she passed a door to a room with a window and she could see Jim sitting in a chair very similar to the one she'd been restrained to.

Dropping the scalpel to the floor, she tried to get into the room only to find that the door was locked.

Hearing footsteps just around the corner, she leaned back down to pick up the blade and toppled over.

With a whimper of pain, she scooted back against the wall and looked up to see a guard rounding the corner.  
He slowed to a stop when he saw Bird sitting on the floor.

"Hey, you!" She called out, raising her good arm up in the air and waving him closer, "Help me, please. I can't stand up."

He eyed her suspiciously for a moment before walking closer and just as he was asked, helped pull her back up to her feet.

"Thank you." Bird said appreciatively.

He was about to ask her who she was and what she was doing down a staff only hallway, but that was when the light reflecting off something shiny caught his eye and he looked down to see the scalpel on the floor.

Realizing what he'd seen, Bird didn't give him much of chance to react as she brought her leg up and kicked him back against the wall with all her might.

With a pained noise he bounced off the wall and landed on the floor where she delivered another kick, this time to the side of his head, rendering him unconscious.

Kneeling down, she kept her balance her the best she could as she pulled the ring of keys from his belt.

It took a few tries with several different keys, but she finally made her way into the room.

"Jim!" She yelled.

"Bird?"  
He looked up startled from the state of near-sleep he'd fallen into.

"What are you doing here?" He asked with heavy eyes as his head seemed to bob with every word.

"I…" She started to say, before she felt her legs starting to grow wobbly again, "I need to sit down."

He watched as she made it over to the chair across from him and sat down, immediately slouching against one of the arm rests.

"Strange drug you too?" Jim guessed.  
She seemed to be doing about as good of a job walking as he imagined he could himself under these conditions.

"Yeah." Bird nodded, "Before they grabbed me, I moved the sling to my good arm so they wouldn't tie it down. I managed to get free."

"Smart." He complimented, looking at her with his forehead lined, "That was a good idea."  
Unable to stop himself from speaking, he continued, "You get yourself out of dangerous situations all the time and I don't give you enough credit for that."

"Thank you." Bird managed a tired, uneven smile, "I think you're really smart too."

Jim smiled back at her and then said, "I'm gad you're here."

Just as quickly the smile fell from his lips and he seemed to grow restless and angry, "That's not good. I shouldn't be."  
Looking back at her he admitted, "Strange said I didn't have a future. That I've got hours at the most left. And if you're here that means the same for you."

"I know." Bird nodded, trying to straighten up more in the seat, "It's okay."

"No, it's not okay." He argued, shaking his head back and forth, "You said the same thing after you were shot and it's not okay. It wasn't then and it's not now. You dying isn't okay."

Bird looked at him as her expression seemed to scrunch up in slow motion, her fatigued brain seeming to have trouble following his words and line of thought.

"I don't want you to die, but I'm glad you're here." He tried to clarify, but then only seemed to further upset himself, "That's not what I mean."

"Jim." Bird sighed, reaching up to push her hair out of her face, "If we're dying then I'm happy I get to see you one last time."

"Me too." He nodded, "That's what I was trying to say."

"You weren't doing a very good job." Bird stated.

"I know." He agreed with a weak laugh as he let his head fall back and stared up to the ceiling.

When he gathered the strength to lift his head again, he looked back at her.  
Watching as she still remained slumped over in the chair, but her eyes were darting all over the room like she were looking for something.

"I love you."  
It was like someone had loosened the valve from his brain to his mouth and the things he thought were coming out with no filter and no forethought.

Turning her head from where the body of a tarantula had been fossilized and encased in a clear glass block for display, Bird looked to Jim and without hesitation answered, "I love you too."

"I'm not-" He shook his head, "I'm not just saying that because we're going to die. I love you. I really mean it."

"I love you too, Jim." She repeated, "So, so much."

Now it was her turn to look upset as she started to say, "I love you and that's why there's something I need to tell you…"

This was it.  
After months of keeping the truth about what happened to Lily from him, she was finally going to come clean.

"I-" She started to say, but stopped when the door to the room opened and a couple of guards dragged the unmoving bodies of Bruce and Lucius into the room with them and then left, locking the door behind them.

"Bruce!" Bird yelled out when she spotted her brother.

"Are they okay?" Jim asked.

He watched as she threw herself from the chair and scrambled over to them.

"They're breathing." Bird answered as she started to shake her brother, but he wouldn't wake up.

"Bruce!" She frantically cried out as she raised her hand and brought it down harder than she meant to and roughly slapped him across the face.

Snapping awake, Bruce put a hand over his stinging cheek and looked at her in shock, for a moment forgetting entirely where they were.

Seeing that had woken her brother up, she did the same to Lucius, who also was startled awake from the pain she inflicted.

Sitting up with a groan he asked, "Bird?"  
Then his eyes drifted over to where Jim was sitting, "Jim?"

"Hi." Jim greeted, looking over to them from where he was still secured to the chair.

"Hi." Bruce replied back, sitting up further yet still not making an attempt to stand.

"Are we alive?" Lucius questioned.

"So far, so good." Jim answered him.

"Had to be sure." Lucius strained to stand up, "Thought we were dead."

As Bruce started to wake up further, he turned his head all about looking around the room.

"What are you doing here?" Bruce asked looking at his sister.

"I couldn't sit at home and do nothing." Sticking her working arm up in the air she lazily waved it around and instructed, "Help me up."

Bruce finished getting stood up; he and Lucius got Bird stood up, then watched with a confused expression as she wavered in her walk back over to the chair she'd been sitting in.

"How are things going for you?" Lucius questioned the couple, before stating, "We've had a hell of a time."

"Same." Jim and Bird both answered in unison.

Looking between them, Bruce asked, "Are you okay?"

"A little groggy." Jim answered, "Strange drugged me; made me talk."

Bird nodded in agreement and Bruce guessed, "About Wayne Enterprises, right?"

"About everything." Jim said.

Lucius looked over to where Bird was sitting and then back over to Jim, who was still restrained to the chair and questioned, "Why didn't you untie him?"

"I don't know." Bird truthfully answered, pushing up from the armrest with her good arm to stand back up and help set Jim free.

"Doesn't matter." Jim said paying more attention to where Bird was now standing instead of where Lucius was trying to loosen the restraint and admitted to everyone, "I love her."

Lucius paused for a minute and looked up to Jim and then over his shoulder to where Bird was and Bruce's eyes darted back and forth between them when Bird nodded, "Me too. I mean, not me, I love him."

"Okay…" Lucius breathed, trying to focus back on the built in restraints of the chair, "Bruce, a little help?"

But once Bruce was within reach and one of his arms was free, Jim reached out and grabbed onto it, "Bruce, I never should have made that oath to you."

"That's not really-" He started to argue that -that wasn't important right now. That they needed to figure a way out of Arkham, but Jim interrupted.

"I was foolish and arrogant and naive… and I'm sorry." Jim added.

Bruce's eyes widened in a complete loss with what to say or how to reply to that.

"You believed it at the time." Bird tried to make him feel better, "You were trying to do the right thing."

"I always try to do the right thing." Jim nodded, "But what a fool I've been."

"Uh…" Lucius breathed, glancing over to Bruce who was looked just as confused and shocked as he was, "What kind of drugs did they give you?"

"Truth serum." Bird explained, "And it's horrible."

"Well, as I mentioned we've had quite the ordeal ourselves." Lucius cleared his throat, trying to keep the impaired admissions and love confessions to a minimum, "Strange had us locked in a room where we were forced to answer various questions under the threat of Nygma releasing a toxic gas in the air."

The next half-hour or so was filled with Bruce and Lucius trying to find a way out of the room, while Jim and Bird remained seated, coming out of the effects of the serum but still not up to a hundred percent, until the door to the room opened and Selina came in.

They all watched as she called Bruce over to her and spoke quietly among themselves.

Selina had found Bridgit Pike when she'd broke into the asylum.  
Her old friend didn't seem to have recollection of who she was and had been convinced by Strange that she was Firefly, a goddess of fire.

It was a struggle and Selina had nearly lost her life in the process, but she'd finally been able to convince Bridgit that she was her sidekick; a friend.

Since that point she'd learned some very interesting things, like how Strange was in the process of trying to clear out the monsters he'd made. Loading them all onto a bus headed upstate and then was going to set a bomb off under the building.

Due to Firefly's attachment to her and thinking this could also be an interesting experiment, Strange had indulged his reanimate and agreed to spare Selina's life.

"What did she say?" Jim questioned once Selina was gone and the doors were shut behind her.

"That she'll do what she likes." Bruce admitted.  
He'd tried to apologize for getting her involved in this mess, but she insisted she did what she wanted. When he tried to urge her to get out of the building, she again let him know that she'll do whatever she pleases.

"And there's a bomb."  
Bruce added, looking back over his shoulder to the rest of the group.

"Is she okay?" Bird questioned.

"Yes. She's going to make it out of danger." Bruce answered.

"Great." Bird laughed, "I mean we all came here to rescue her and now we're going to die, but whatever, good for her."

After a beat of silence, she added, "I can't blame her. A couple years ago I've have done the same."

Glancing over in Bird's direction, Lucius commented, "You're having a hard time coming out from that truth serum, huh?"

"No." Bruce answered for his sister, "That's just her."

•••

"What now?" Lucius questioned, looking up towards the ceiling of the room they were locked in as sounds of fighting thundered from above.

"Sounds like warfare." Jim said as he stood along with everyone else.

He and Bird were mostly out of the effects of the medicine now, but were no closer to breaking out of the room that had been locked from the outside.

Just a few minutes later the doors were opened and Selina returned.

"What's going on?" Bruce questioned.

"Simple psychology." Selina shrugged as if it were no big deal that Firefly and Mr. Freeze were battling it out just a floor above them, "Waiting for the right moment."

When the group of four continued to stare at her with stunned expressions she nodded towards the open doorway, "You coming or what?"

She led them out of the room and up a flight of stairs to the room where the fight was taking place.

They all ducked down out of sight and started moving along the far wall.

Professor Strange was knelt down by a table across the room and Firefly and Mr. Freeze were standing at opposite sides trying to kill the other.

She had her flamethrower on full blast and the flames were being met with the liquid from his freeze gun.

 _Fifteen minutes until detonation._

 _Fifteen minutes until detonation._

They all looked up towards the ceiling where the automated warning voice played over the speakers; warning of the impending explosion.

Trying to make a move for his own safety and secure his own future, Strange jumped out from where he was hiding and tried to make run for it when both Firefly and Mr. Freeze stopped feuding at the sound of the announcement.

But he'd moved at the wrong time, getting right between them just as the flames and ice started up again, catching him in the middle.

Once they realized what they were doing, they stopped and his body fell motionless to the floor; both singed and frostbitten all at once.

When the coast was clear, Jim ran over over to him and tried to wake him up.  
He was their only shot at stopping the bomb that was about to go off.

"Strange!" He yelled, slapping him hard across the face trying to revive him, "I know you're in there. Wake up!"

"Gordon?" Strange asked as he started to wake up, "I surmise my plan must have gone awry."

"You could say that." Jim nearly hissed, "I'm going to stand you up now and you're going to give us a tour of your secret lab."

"No!" He yelled, trying to fight against him, but he wasn't a match for the rage and strength Jim possessed.

Pulling the professor to his feet, Jim asked, "It's this way, right?"

"No. No!" He cried out in protest, "We can't go down there. I set a bomb. The lab is going to blow… we have to get out of here!"

"In ten minutes everything in a quarter mile radius will be dust." He added, trying to stress just how little time they had to get out of there.

"That's madness." Jim's face twisted up.

"We have to get out of here!" Strange repeated.

"I love how this turned into a 'we' situation." Bird commented as she stepped up beside Jim, "When just minutes ago you were going to leave us to burn."

"If you want to live, which frankly I do, then we had better leave." Strange urged, his voice shaky and broken from terror.

"We detected radioactive material down there." Lucius remembered, "You got it out first, right?"

"There wasn't enough time!" Strange screamed, nearly in tears, "They forced my hand, but I calculated the chances of a radioactive cloud as very low."

"If you're wrong then thousands of people could die." Lucius argued.

"Yes, yes, yes." He nodded, lowering his voice finally, "But paying that price will be better than releasing what's down there."

"How do we shut it down?" Bird pushed.

"The security walls are up. The lab is sealed-"

"There must be some way." Jim argued.

"We have to go!" Strange yelled over him, "We have to leave, now!"

Having enough of his refusal to help them undo the path to sure destruction he'd set off with the bomb, Jim roughly grabbed onto his shirt and growled in his face, "Show me how to get that bomb and shut it off or I'll batter you to death right here!"

"In which case… young man." Strange said in a tone laced with defeat, "I supposed I will just have to die."

"Wait!" Selina called out, "Nymga knows a way down there."

"I could use some help." Jim said as he turned to Lucius.  
"Yep." Lucius nodded, willing to see this through to the end.

"You got nine minutes." Jim guessed turning to Bird, their eyes locked in an intense stare before he nodded over to where Bruce and Selina were standing and instructed, "Get them as far away as you can."

"No." Bird argued, her expression shifted in anger at his expecting her to leave at a time like this.

"Yes!" He yelled over her, "Go! Run!"

Bird didn't even have time to argue as he turned and ran off the in the direction Lucius had gone seconds before.

"You guys have to run." Bird ordered, as she darted over to where they stood and pressed a quick kiss to her little brother's forehead before pulling back and saying, "Go."

"No!" Bruce argued, not wanting to leave her anymore than she'd wanted to leave when it was Jim trying to tell her to flee to safety.

"Get him out of here." Bird instructed Selina before she turned and ran off after Jim.

"Wait!" Bruce screamed after her, but Selina took an iron strong grip on his wrist and bolted for the exit, dragging him to safety right along with her.

Bird ran into the hallway where Lucius and Jim were trying to find a way to get Nygma out of his cell, neither of them having bothered to try and grab a key before getting there.

"Hey!" Bird called out to them as she jogged to where they were standing and pulled the keys she'd lifted off the guard earlier from her pocket, "Maybe these will help?"

"I told you to go-" Jim started back up, but Bird shut the argument down with one of her own, "Remember earlier when you said you needed to give me more credit for getting out of dangerous situations?"

"Yeah." He said with a weak laugh, "I'm not so sure we're getting out of this one."

"Either way it's my decision." Bird stated.

"Aw." Nygma cooed with his face pressed against the open screened window on the cell door, "Aren't you two adorable?"

Looking between them and thinking this was the last thing they had time for, Lucius pulled the set of keys from Bird's hand and managed to open the door.

As soon as the cell was opened, Jim roughly grabbed onto Nygma's arm and dragged him, demanding to know if he knew a way to get them into the top-secret lab.

"Of course, I do." Nygma strained as he was dragged down the hallway towards where Lucius had detected the radioactive material earlier. Jerking his arm from Jim's grip he asked, "But what is with all the hoo-ha?"

"Ooh, ow, ow, ow!" He nearly yelped as Bird grabbed onto his other arm, holding on and pinching as hard as she could and pushing him further down the hallway.

"This is it." Lucius said when the reached the spot he'd marked earlier as a signal to Jim.

"What is the rush here?" Nygma demanded to know. When Bird finally let go of his arm he turned to her with a smile and questioned, "And what do I get if I do it?"

"You get to live." Jim grumbled.

"Fair enough." He agreed looking over at the former detective before he opened a hidden door and revealed a lock.

Lucius tried to hand him the keys, but Nymga scoffed, "I doubt the key you need is on there."

Carefully, he pulled the lock from the wall to show it was attached to a braided set of wires.  
He blocked out the sounds of alarm ringing out all over the asylum to warn time was running out, and just like he'd done to sneak down to the basement on his own, he rubbed the right wires together and started up the elevator.

 _Security system deactivated._

The group looked around as the automated voice repeated the message before the sounds of an elevator whirring grew closer.

"There you go." Nygma smiled proudly and pushed the wires and lock back into the wall, "Now-" He started to say, but stopped with a hiss of pain when Bird grabbed back into the same spot she'd already made sore on his arm and announced she'd take him back to his cell.

"What's the rush?" He repeated his earlier question when they reached his cell, "Gotta see the monsters for yourself? Because trust me you don't, some things can never be unseen-"

Roughly pushing him back into his open cell, Bird stood in the doorway and admitted, "There's a bomb in the lab… and radioactive material."

The smug expression left his face and he gasped, "What? There's… there's a nuke in the basement?"

"Pretty much." She nodded.

"You have to let me out of here-"

"I don't have to do anything!" She yelled.

He stopped his forward advancement, looking genuinely surprised that she was going to leave him there to die, "You can't just leave me here."

"You locked my brother in a room and threatened his life with poison gas." Bird stated the reasoning for her most recent cause of anger with him.

"Hey, now!" He nervously called out with a loud laugh, "It was just sleeping gas. No harm, no foul."

"Hmm." Bird hummed with a smile as she stepped back and then slammed the automatically locking door shut, trapping him inside.

"We're friends!" Nygma screamed out in a panic, knocking on the door and smashing his face back against the screen as he spoke.

"Friends?" Bird repeated, glancing down the hallway when she heard Jim yelling for her, "You really believe that?"

"Yes!" He insisted.

"Well, then consider yourself lucky, Nygma." Bird offered up with an eerie smile, "If we fail and the bomb blows this place sky-high, then you'll have died among friends and that's more than most can say."

"Miss Wayne!" He practically shrieked after her, banging on the door until his hands were raw, "Bird, come back here! Let me out!"

But she was already in the elevator and couldn't care less about what he had to say.

"You any good at diffusing bombs?" Jim questioned.

"I don't know yet." Lucius honestly answered, "You?"

"Meh." Jim breathed as Bird shook her head back and forth.

 _Two minutes until detonation._

The second the elevator doors open, the trio spilled out into a long hallway lined with doors.  
Some were standing wide open from the experiments Strange had already had loaded onto the bus and others still had the test subjects inside.

Their screams and howls were just barely audible over how loud the alarms were in the lab, but it didn't take them long to find the bomb itself.

"It's, uh…" Bird breathed as they circled around the large explosive, "It's bigger than I expected."

"Yes. Yes it is." Lucius agreed.

"Got any ideas?" Jim questioned.

"You got a knife?" Lucius asked, but Jim shook his head.

"Okay, well we have to do something." Bird pointed to the countdown in bright red digital numbering, "We don't exactly have time to wait on the bomb squad."

Reaching forward she grabbed onto the number display and pulled it forward, causing both men to yell for her to stop.

"You got any other ideas?" She screamed back at them, still holding the electronic timer in her hands.

Lucius reached into the open space the alarm had left and felt a number of wires, but he didn't have a clue which ones would stop the countdown and which ones would cause it to detonate right there.

"Maybe…" Jim nervously licked his lips and wiped the sweat from his forehead off with the back of his hand, "How about we just start pulling all this stuff off…"  
He suggested, motioning to exposed wires.

"See what happens?" He swallowed hard.

"There's no cut off program… maybe there's no tamper proofing program." Lucius said.

"Yeah." Jim could barely breathe.

"Yeah." Lucius echoed.

"Fine." Bird loudly exclaimed with the feeling of her heart trying to burst through her chest, "I'm not so sure either of you really believe that, but we can't just stand here and do nothing. So I'm going just to grab a handful of these wires and yank them out."

"Now would be the time." Lucius nodded, they were just a little above thirty seconds left on the timer.

Handing off the attached alarm to Lucius, Bird reached in and grabbed onto the wires.  
Hesitating she repeated, "No cut off program, so no tamper proofing program."

"Water." A small voice croaked out.

The trio looked over to see a disheveled Ms. Peabody struggling to sit up after being knocked unconscious before they'd gotten there.  
They'd been in such a panic they hadn't even noticed her laying there.

"Water." She repeated, "Need water."

"Water!" Both Jim and Lucius chimed back in unison.

Jim darted around the corner where he'd spotted an emergency eye wash station, but was left a loss of how to transport the water.

"Twenty-five seconds!" Bird yelled.

Breaking the plastic housing from one of the wall lights, Jim filled the plastic with water and rushed back to the as fast as he could -with less than five seconds left before certain death.

His hands were shaking near uncontrollably as he started to pour the water into the open space, with Lucius still holding onto the timer.

The inside of the explosive started to sizzle and pop as water flooded the internal circuit board and then finally, with just one second left, the timer stopped and all the red lights warning of an impending explosion glowed blue.

Bird reached forward and helped Lucius carefully return the timer back into it's slot on the bomb and they both stepped back.

Bird and Jim both smiled as they looked at one another, completely flooded with relief.  
Not only were they still alive, but had managed to save countless lives.

"So…" Bird said not taking her eyes off Jim while still a little breathless, "Is this what it feels like to be a hero?"

Jim let out a heaving breath as he laughed and shook his head at her.

"Please!" Ms. Peabody gasped, "Water."  
She held out her hand towards them, "Please, water. I need water."

Their formerly thrilled expression gave way to one of shock as they realized she wasn't telling them how to disarm the bomb; she was asking for a drink of water.

"I'm going to call Bullock." Jim announced, unaware that GCPD was already on the scene. He looked to Bird and questioned, "Will you stay with her? She, Strange and everyone else involved in this is going to be taken into custody."

"Yeah." Bird nodded, not so sure her legs were ready for the trek back upstairs just yet anyways, "Lucius will you-" She started to ask.

"Find Bruce and let him know you're okay." He nodded with a smile before following Jim out.

"Water." Ms. Peabody stretched her hand out towards Bird, still desperate for a drink.

Picking up the plastic housing Jim had used to carry water to the bomb, Bird went to the eyewash station and filled it up.

"What happened to you anyways?" Bird asked as she handed her the makeshift cup.

"Reanimate number thirteen." Ms. Peabody answered after gulping down so much of the water it made her feel nauseous, she remembered the subjects name, "Fish Mooney."

"Fish?" Bird's eyes widened, "She's alive."

"And she's got abilities." Ms. Peabody added.

Before trying to bring her back to life, Professor Strange had spliced Fish's DNA with that of a cuttlefish and the result have given the re-living woman special talent.  
A psychotropic chemical agent on her skin that let her control others by a single touch.

•••

The scene outside of Arkham was nothing but chaos lit up in red in blue from all the police cars on scene.

Strange, Peabody and several of their staff had all been put in cuffs and loaded into cars to be taken to lock-up. Reporters were already crowding around the marked off areas trying to catch anything they could on camera.

"Hey, you okay?" Jim asked as he finally found Bird outside among the chaos.

"Yeah." She nodded, but the look on her face didn't sell the lie.

Flipping her cellphone closed she started to say, "I need to get a hold of Oswald-"

"Ah, forget Penguin!" Bullock yelled as he strolled up to them just in time to hear what Bird was saying, "You heroic sons of bitches!" He pointed at them, "A nuclear bomb?"

With that he threw his arms Jim in hug that nearly knocked his friend down.

Pulling back, he glanced at Bird and said, "I'd hug you too crazy eyes, but I wouldn't want you getting the wrong idea."

"Shut up, Bullock." Bird couldn't help but laugh.

Looking between them, Bullock said, "You will never guess what took us so long. I mean like in a million years you could never guess-"

"A Jim-lookalike?" Bird guessed, before asking, "How long did it take you to figure it out?"

"Oh…" He cleared his throat, "You know… not long."

He wasn't about to tell them that he wasn't the one who'd discovered it, that it had been Barbara Kean, that was able to figure out in one conversation that it wasn't Jim.

"We've got a problem." Jim said, slapping a hand on Bullock's shoulder, "Whatever was down there. Whoever was down there in Indian Hill, they're not there anymore."

Bird slipped away from the conversation unnoticed and made another attempt to call her best friend.  
Oswald was the one who had killed Fish and if their old boss really was walking among the living again that could mean his life was in danger -from a threat he'd never even see coming.

When her calls continued to go unanswered, Bird walked over to where Alfred and Bruce were standing next to a patrol car that Selina was sitting on.

"There she is." Alfred smiled as she approached them.

"Hey." She offered up a smile.

"Well, then…" He cleared his throat and looked between the siblings, "That's the end of your adventures with the police, eh?"

When they both gave him matching expressions, he breathed, "Oh, brother…"

"There's a secret council, Alfred." Bruce explained, "A secret council that runs everything in Gotham. It's them who wanted us dead."

"And I'm not sure how or what exactly…" Bird chimed in, "But Falcone knows something and I'm going to find out what that something is."

"Oh, bloody hell…" Alfred breathed, "You know I don't like you having much to do with him."

"We're so close." Bruce insisted, "So close to the ultimate truth that we can't turn back now."

"Bloody hell…" He repeated, glancing past Bruce to where Selina was sitting.  
She threw her hands up in the air and laughed, "Hey, don't look at me."

"Anyone else want to go for coffee?" Bird questioned, "I need the caffeine-"

"Someone say coffee?" Jim asked walking up to them, "It's going to be a long night."

The bus carrying the Arkham test subjects had been involved with a collision with police cars who'd been following it; when back up arrived the bus was found nearly entirely empty.

The things created in that lab were so dangerous that Hugo Strange was willing to set off a bomb to keep them contained and now they were out walking around the city.

Bird and Jim looked at one another, both with soft smiles, silently knowing how relieved the other was that they were okay.

Reaching out he took he hand in his and gave a soft squeeze.

Bruce looked between them and tried to hold back a laugh, but he couldn't contain himself and broke out into a fit of laughter, causing everyone to look at him confused.

"Out with it." Alfred instructed and Selina nodded in agreement, "Yeah, what's so funny?"

"They were both given truth serum-" Bruce started to say, but Alfred cut him off, "That sounds awful."

"It was horrible."" Bird replied.

"Yes, I know." Bruce slowed his laughter some, but was still chuckling when he turned to Alfred and explained, "And they both just kept saying how much they loved each other."

"What?" Alfred now saw the humor in the story and even Selina laughed at their expense as she remarked, "Wow, you two are so lame."

"Okay, we are going over here." Jim said as he started to walk away and tugged on Bird's arm, with the other hand he motioned towards them and added, "Away from this."

As they were walking away, they overheard Alfred telling Bruce he wanted to know the whole story.

"So, uh…" Jim asked with a strained expression as he stopped and turned to face her, "Was it really that bad?"

Bird beamed a smile and glanced up towards the sky as she answered, "I seem to recall Lucius wondering why I hadn't untied you yet and you saying it didn't matter -because you love me."

"Yep… yeah." Jim shook his head, "Now that you mention it, I do seem to recall that."

"And they are never going to let either of us live it down." Bird empathized.

"Hey, what were you talking about in there?" He asked, remembering their conversation when they'd still been alone, "That you had something to tell me?"

"Oh!" Bird's eyes widened a little, "Right, um…"

And there it was, a chance to be entirely honest.  
Maybe Strange was right and her keeping the secret was only helping to grow a monster of her own making; that even if Jim couldn't understand why she'd done it, that he'd still love her enough to move past it.

Or maybe he was wrong.  
After all the man did create literal monsters in a secret underground lab.

Jim had brought it up, pretty much opened the door for her to just walk through and yet she was getting cold feet.

That's part of the madness of it all.  
Sometimes even when someone gives you a way out, you just can't bring yourself to take it, not even to save your own life.

"Fish Mooney is alive." Bird covered, "That's why I've been trying to call Oswald."

"My god…" Jim breathed, his face contorting as he shook his head, "I'm afraid to know who or what else is out there now because of Strange."

"Me too." Bird agreed.

Catching him off guard, she leaned in and pressed her mouth to his, not caring who was around to see it.

"I love you, Jim." She all but vowed.

"Me too." He leaned in, forehead resting against hers. Breathing in, it felt like the first time since he'd stepped foot in Arkham that oxygen had managed to reach his lungs, "I love you too."

•••

* * *

 **A/N - Ahh! Thank you all so much for reading the FINAL CHAPTER of Wasteland! What are your thoughts?**

 **It's so crazy that I'm about to start on the 3rd story for Bird. I can still clearly remember posting We Were Born Sick and being nervous that no one would read it and now it's amazing to be here so many chapters later and still have readers and fans!**  
 **Thank you for supporting me and the story I've been telling since 2015. Haha**

 **I want to take a moment and thank AGBreads, ThatMysteriousSlime, Shadow knight1121, xenocanaan, Rasiel Hasu, Love. Fiction. 2018, SmellYourScentForMiles, xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, Katnis789, MisforMiakelson, Havana, DancingDorisDay and the Guests who reviewed chapter 35.**

 **It's bittersweet having this story come to an end, but I'm also really excited for the next installment in the series which will be titled 'Devil's Playground' and cover season 3 of Gotham.**  
 **I hope you'll all continue to follow along as Bird's story is far from over.**

 **If you'd like like to know when Devil's Playground is posted let me know in a review or message and I'll let you know when the new story is up.**

 **Gah! There is so much more I want to say, but am coming up blank and this is a long enough note as it is. Lol.**  
 **So I'll leave it here, with my unwavering gratitude to each and every one of you.  
xx  
**


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